Firing Was Wrong, Jury Finds

A Bellevue woman who contends she was fired because she suffers from manic-depressive illness has been awarded $901,000 by a King County jury.

Cynthia Weaver, 34, was fired by KVI-AM and KPLZ-FM in 1993, two months after she informed her boss she suffered from the disorder. She had worked at the Seattle radio stations for nine months.

After three days of deliberation, the Superior Court jury on Thursday found that the stations, former parent company Golden West Broadcasters Inc. and station executives Shannon Sweatte and Bill Sigmar were liable for wrongly terminating Weaver as an account executive.

The jury found that Weaver’s depression was a “substantial motivating factor’ in her firing and that station management did not try to accommodate her disability.

Station management said Weaver was fired because of mistakes regarding a major account.

The award is believed to be one of the first in the state for a mental-health discrimination claim.