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A former state employee alleges in a Bureau of Labor and Industries complaint that she was terminated after alerting her bosses of a sexist and racist culture at the Oregon Division of Child Support.

(Oregon Division of Child Support)

A Portland lawyer working for the Oregon's Division of Child Support said she was fired after complaining to managers that co-workers regularly made sexist and racist remarks aimed at her and at thousands of parents who turn to the agency for help.

Nicole Rose-Russell, 36, began working in late 2012 as a case manager for the agency, a division of the Oregon Department of Justice. It handles about 240,000 cases a year, serving some of Oregon's poorest families.

To file a complaint

Employees who feel they’ve been sexually harassed, retaliated against, unfairly terminated or otherwise mistreated at work can file a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

Call 971-673-0764 (English) or 971-673-2818 (Español), or

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Rose-Russell was supposed to learn how to determine who should pay child support, calculate payments and track down parents who weren’t paying.

Instead, Rose-Russell said she was trained to ignore state laws, pass judgment on clients and deny claims to women deemed “undeserving” of child support because of their criminal or sexual histories, according the complaint Rose-Russell filed with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

Workers in the agency’s Salem office mocked single mothers, calling some “girls who can’t keep their legs together,” the complaint alleged, and referring to some Latinas as “puta” -- Spanish for prostitute.

Management ignored Rose-Russell’s concerns about how co-workers treated clients, the BOLI complaint said. And although she’d received several positive evaluations, the complaint said, Rose-Russell was fired in March 2013, just before the end of her probationary period.

Kristina Edmunson, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Justice, said neither she nor anyone from the child-support division could comment on a complaint that could end up in court.

“The Department of Justice takes all BOLI complaints very seriously, and looks closely at any employee concern,” Edmunson wrote in an email Monday. “Given that this is pending litigation, I cannot comment on this particular administrative process.”

The allegations paint a grim picture of a state agency that plays a major role in the lives of many Oregonians. The division collected and re-distributed $353 million to families last year and received reports of another $25 million that hadn’t been paid.

In Oregon, child-support agreements started in court as part of divorce proceedings are typically handled by district attorneys. The rest, including those of unmarried couples on public assistance, are handled by one of the child-support division’s 12 offices statewide.

When parents fall behind on payments, those cases are sent to the state. State employees also help parents establish paternity and provide a financial system -- somewhat like escrow -- to hold and distribute payments.

More than many other state agencies, the child-support division has an intimate -- and long-term -- involvement with the families its employees serve. While most states oversee payments until youth are 18, Oregon manages child support, with certain restrictions, until children are 21.

Hired as a case manager in October 2012, Rose-Russell became increasingly concerned about how well families were being served by the division, which she claimed tolerated a racist and sexist culture, according to her complaint.

Early on, a trainer directed Rose-Russell and others to research clients’ criminal backgrounds, far beyond what’s necessary to make child-support decisions, the complaint said. The trainer further passed judgment on clients’ sex lives, the complaint alleged, telling Rose-Russell and other employees that certain women were “undeserving” of past-due child support and that state workers should “ignore” the rules and deny their claims.

Another trainer regularly commented that Latino families were draining the state’s resources and the she was “done catering to Mexicans,” the complaint alleged. Other employees called the state’s female clients “sluts,” the complaint alleged, and in at least one case, a gay client was called a “fag.”

Rose-Russell and Janine Kelty, another former child-support employee, stated in the BOLI complaint that they were upset by a training form they felt ridiculed the families they were supposed to be helping.

Distributed during a training session, the form’s blanks were filled in. But instead of the usual “Jane Doe” and “John Doe,” the line for petitioner was filled in as “Unwed Mother” from Albany, while the respondent’s line was “Party Boy,” the BOLI complaint says.

A section on paternity asking whether a child could have any other potential fathers listed the name “Romantic man, last saw him in Lebanon,” the complaint says.

In early January 2013, Rose-Russell lodged her concerns with a supervisor, Michelle Long, according to the complaint. Despite Rose-Russell’s fears that her co-workers were becoming more aggressive and threatening toward her, the complaint said, the supervisor Long told her to “work it out” herself.

As an investigation into Rose-Russell’s allegations began, the complaint said, her co-workers grew more hostile, shoving her chair and bumping into her shoulder as they passed in the hall.

Kelty, the other former child-support worker, said in the complaint that she was interviewed as part of the investigation. In Rose-Russell’s BOLI complaint, Kelty said that she confirmed Rose-Russell’s concerns to human resources officials and was told that investigators aimed to “correct any wrongdoing.”

Not long after Rose-Russell was fired in late March 2013, her supervisor Long was transferred to another department, the complaint alleged. State officials wouldn’t comment on whether that move stemmed from Rose-Russell’s allegations.

In the BOLI complaint, former child-support employee Kelty said that a manager held a staff meeting two days after Rose-Russell was terminated.

The manager announced that the investigation into Rose-Russell’s allegations was finished and that “everything could go back to normal,” wrote Kelty, who left the department in May 2013.

“The conversations about sex and the racist comments continued,” Kelty wrote.

-- Laura Gunderson