Locke v. Haessig

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s motion for summary judgment asserting qualified immunity in section 1983 action alleging that defendant violated plaintiff-parolee’s equal protection rights, when plaintiff complained that defendant’s subordinate-parole officer had sexually harassed him, (i.e., by propositioning him, making physical advances and offering to take him off ankle monitor in exchange for allowing subordinate to take nude pictures of him), when defendant, after being told of plaintiff’s complaint, failed to intervene or investigate and then threatened to retaliate by telling plaintiff that he would not get off ankle monitor due to his complaint. While defendant argued that she could not be liable in her supervisory role for only failing to intervene and stop her subordinate from sexually harassing plaintiff, defendant was not entitled to qualified immunity under instant record where reasonable jury could infer through defendant’s alleged failure to intervene and her alleged retaliatory threats that defendant was acting with intent to discriminate.