Janet Napolitano-Run Homeland Security Routinely Humiliated Male Staffers, Federal Discrimination Lawsuit Alleges

The Department of Homeland Security is being slapped with a scathing federal discrimination suit, which accuses DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano of turning the agency into a woman-run "frat house" where male employees were regularly humiliated and even exiled to the bathrooms, the New York Daily News reports.

The suit was filed by James Hayes Jr., who is now the top Homeland Security official in the New York division. He argues Napolitano gave two of her female friends top positions in Washington, D.C. who then went on to torment male employees.

The women are identified as Dora Schriro, now head of the Department of Corrections in Washington, D.C., and Suzanne Barr, chief of staff for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The New York Daily News has more details:

Soon after Schriro and Barr were hired in January 2009, male staffers were treated like lapdogs, Hayes claims.

Barr “moved the entire contents of the offices of three employees, including name plates, computers and telephones, to the men’s bathroom at ICE headquarters,” the suit says.

Barr also stole a male staffer’s BlackBerry and fired off a message to his female supervisor indicating that he “had a crush on [her] and fantasized about her,” Hayes claims.

Sometimes, Barr took a more direct approach. In one case, she called a male colleague in his hotel room and screamed at him using sexually humiliating language, the suit says.

Hayes claims that after he reported the abuse to the Equal Employment Opportunity office, Napolitano launched a series of misconduct investigations against him.

Addtionally, Hayes argues he was deprived of a deserved promotion and was marginalized while working in ICE's Washington office. Meanwhile, Schriro was named the special advisor to Napolitano on Detention and Removal Operations and began to replace Hayes at meetings despite having no "experience in managing a federal law enforcement department," according to the lawsuit.

Napolitano and Schriro have a "long standing relationship," the suit says.

Brian Hale, director of public affairs at ICE, says the suit, filed in May and first reported on the blog, debbieschlussel.com, is comprised of "unfounded claims" and believes the court system will determine Hayes' allegations are "inappropriate."

From Debbie Schlussel:

The lawsuit further elucidates several stories reported on this site about discrimination against straight male Homeland Security officials in favor gay officials, including Napolitano’s girlfriend, Dora Schriro. As I noted, Schriro had zero experience in law enforcement, and yet, she was appointed ICE Policy Director and set the current Obama immigration enforcement policy of not enforcing immigration laws. (Schriro, who made a mess of Arizona’s prisons and empowered violent prisoners against prison guards, is now making a mess of New York’s prisons, a cushy job Napolitano got her so she could be close to a sick relative in New York.)

A spokesperson with the Department of Correction denies that her relationship with Napolitano played a role in her hiring.

“Commissioner Schriro’s selection and service at DHS was based on the merits. Any suggestion to the contrary is false,” spokesman Robin Campbell said.

Read the entire lawsuit here via debbieschlussel.com