Multnomah County has agreed to pay $100,000 to a black employee who claimed the county fostered a racially insensitive workplace after she complained about a co-worker who pinned up a “Blue Lives Matter” flag.

Karimah Guion-Pledgure claimed in her January lawsuit that the flag “demeans” and “denigrates” the Black Lives Matter movement. But some co-workers didn’t agree, and Guion-Pledgure claims they harassed her for it -- leading her to suffer debilitating stress and health problems, the suit said.

A probation officer hung up the flag in September 2017 above the probation officer’s desk, and after Guion-Pledgure and other black co-workers complained, supervisors refused to require it be removed, the suit said.

Proponents of the Blue Lives Matter flag say it’s meant to support and honor the work and sacrifices of law enforcement officers.

Guion-Pledgure’s lawsuit said the Blue Lives Matter movement “co-opts” the Black Lives Matter movement and "repurposes it to shift focus to law enforcement — a chosen profession, not a racial identity — and thus denigrates, dilutes, and demeans the purpose of the Black Lives Matter movement.”

Thursday, Multnomah County commissioners approved the $100,000 settlement, which was first reported by the Portland Mercury. As part of the agreement, Guion-Pledgure must resign, effective Friday, said her attorney. She will be allowed to re-apply for a job with the county, though.

A county spokeswoman, Jessica Morkert-Shibley, said Friday that although commissioners approved the settlement, she couldn’t comment on the lawsuit until the settlement was finalized.

Guion-Pledgure was hired by the county in 2011 and worked for the Department of Community Justice as a corrections technician, according to her suit.

“She’s disappointed that she has to leave there and that they couldn’t make it a safe and welcoming work environment,” said Guion-Pledgure’s attorney, Ashlee Albies. “They say they’re working on that, and we hope they really are.”

Albies said she believes the commissioners and many others who work for the county want it be a “safe and welcome” workplace. Albies added that her client will use her time away from the county to focus on her health.

“She was out of work quite a lot,” Albies said. “It was incredibly stressful for her. I think it’s important that she take care of herself.”

Among the hostility that Guion-Pledgure says she felt: More than six months after the probation officer’s flag remained on the wall, Guion-Pledgure erected an “equity wall” that displayed photos of minorities killed by police, the suit stated. Managers told her to take down the photos, the lawsuit says, but she refused because the Blue Lives Matter flag remained. A week later, managers responded with a new rule that all personal photos displayed needed to be smaller than 5-by-7 inches, according to the suit.

That same day, Guion-Pledgure found two sticky notes affixed to her equity wall reading “Thanks a lot” and “Bitch,” according to the lawsuit.

In response to a question Friday from The Oregonian/OregonLive, the county spokeswoman said that Blue Lives Matter flags or photo displays, such as the collage of minorities killed by police, aren’t allowed under a new policy at the Department of Community Justice, which is where Guion-Pledgure’s lawsuit originated.

“We are currently working on a countywide policy addressing this issue,” Morkert-Shibley said.

Displays of personal family photos are currently allowed, at least pending the development of that countywide policy, Morkert-Shibley said.

About a month before the probation officer put up the Blue Lives Matter flag, white supremacist demonstrators displayed that same flag alongside Confederate flags during a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the lawsuit notes. One person died and dozens of others were injured when a man deliberately rammed his car into the crowd of counter-protesters. Members of Blue Lives Matter condemned the use of their flag at the rally.

Guion-Pledgure originally had sought $420,000 in her lawsuit, which was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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