Attorney: Ormsby’s office should have provided salary info to avoid lawsuit

The federal government alleges one of its former Spokane prosecutors, now suing for gender discrimination, mistreated male employees and shared confidential information before her suspension and resignation.

But the attorney for Jill Bolton, who resigned from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Eastern Washington in October, said the whole situation could have been avoided if the office had provided salary data she asked for.

Bolton had sought those records in June 2011, acting on a suspicion that women were being paid less than men and receiving smaller bonuses, said Spokane attorney Mary Schultz.

“There are ways of doing this really easily,” Schultz said. “You can redact names. It’s not a big deal. They won’t do it.”

The government’s claims stem from statements by men on Bolton’s prosecution team. They say Bolton yelled at them in front of co-workers, “belittled” them during a midyear review and sent a “derogatory and negative email” while she supervised them as a deputy criminal chief under Mike Ormsby.

Bolton, who joined the office in 2002, sought salary information from Heidi Krummel, an administrator in the office. Her lawsuit alleges that she was paid less than her male counterpart, Russel Smoot, and her authority was undermined by male co-workers.

Bolton’s request for salary information was denied. The attorney general said Bolton should not have access to the information because she was not a member of the office’s “executive management team.”

Krummel told Bolton she could file a Freedom of Information Act request for the information. Bolton did, and it took three years to fulfill. The information provided in that request was “useless,” Schultz said.

Ann Harwood, an attorney representing the federal government in the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, declined through her office to comment Thursday.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy, from Montana, ordered both sides to prepare preliminary statements outlining what they intend to prove at trial. They were filed in Spokane this week.

The government says Bolton’s pay and discipline following an alleged security breach in summer 2014 were not influenced by her gender nor the questions she raised to superiors. They allege Bolton, after she received the nonresponsive public records, coerced Michael Eddy, an IT specialist who worked in the office, to turn over a disc containing thousands of files protected by federal privacy laws.

Schultz said if the pay would have been equal and the federal government didn’t need to hide salary totals, her client would not have had to seek the records from Eddy.

The Spokesman-Review filed a similar records request in December 2014, which took less than a year to fulfill. The records provided redacted names and did not provide employee genders. The newspaper has appealed to receive salary records with gender information.

The government also alleges Bolton lied about copying the disc Eddy provided, and then denied she had shared some of the information on the disc with friends, family and her attorney.

Bolton and Eddy now work elsewhere. An online posting shows Bolton has started a private practice.

Ormsby placed Bolton on unpaid leave in November 2014 pending an investigation into potential crimes tied to the disc. She resigned Oct. 15.

The government says an investigation from the Office of Inspector General for the Justice Department remains open.

If the case goes to trial, the witness list would include Ormsby, several U.S. assistant attorneys, at least one federal judge and several members of the FBI, according to court filings.

Bolton settled a lawsuit from 2000 alleging gender discrimination at a previous job in Blaine County, Idaho.

A hearing is scheduled in the case in Spokane next week.