Murphy Administration Sued For 'Mishandling' Rape Case: Attorney

The Murphy administration was sued Monday for allegedly mishandling a rape accusation against a former state official.

Katie Brennan, who came forward about her rape charge against ex-senior Murphy administration official Al Alvarez, filed suit in the Superior Court of New Jersey on Monday against the state of New Jersey and Alvarez.

The suit seeks damages and an "emergent application" to change New Jersey’s policies and practices concerning the conduct of confidential workplace investigations, according to a statement from Brennan's lawyers.

The Murphy administration declined to comment, saying it doesn't speak to pending litigation.

The suit seeks a judgement granting "immediate and emergent relief" for Brennan, who was a 2017 Murphy campaign volunteer and is now chief of staff at the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.

“Through her own experience, Ms. Brennan has seen firsthand how the state uses its ‘confidentiality’ policies to shield and protect wrongdoers and hide complaints of sexual misconduct and discrimination,” said attorney Katy McClure of Smith Eibeler, LLC. “Ms. Brennan’s action today is a step toward critical and meaningful change so that survivors of sexual assault and victims of discrimination and harassment in New Jersey will be heard, respected, and believed, rather than silenced, as Katie has been.”

In response to her De. 4, 2018 testimony to the New Jersey Legislative Select Oversight Committee, the state of New Jersey’s Office of Equal Employment and Affirmative Action informed Brennan that it is opening an investigation concerning her testimony that she has felt ostracized in state employment since telling her story publicly in October 2018.

Brennan began the effort to stop the state from enforcing the confidentiality directive against her and all other state employees who are victims of sexual misconduct and discrimination.

“State officials apparently had no regard for these confidentiality protocols when they told Ms. Brennan’s rapist about her reports,” McClure noted. “But conveniently, they cited confidentiality as the reason they withheld the rape complaint from Governor Murphy. The Murphy administration has used confidentiality as a convenient excuse to explain the complete and inexcusable mishandling of a rape case on their watch.”

Now, McClure said, after forcing Ms. Brennan to tell her story publicly in order to be heard, the state seeks to silence Ms. Brennan under the "guise of conducting an investigation."

“As we have seen in other employment harassment and discrimination matters, if Ms. Brennan cooperates and proceeds with the state’s investigation, she will be required to sign a contract with the state requiring her to adhere to the State’s strict confidentiality directive,” she said.

The action Brennan filed Monday seeks relief by asking the court to do the following:

• Preclude the State from enforcing the strict confidentiality directive against Brennan, including barring the state from requiring her to sign a confidentiality directive contract;
• Require the EEO/AA Office to investigate the numerous violations of the state’s policy prohibiting discrimination in the workplace as set forth in Brennan’s complaint;
• Relieve Brennan from being required to participate in any EEO/AA investigation until after the conclusion of all related criminal proceedings; and

On December 28, 2018, Brennan’s legal team submitted a tort claim, saying the state of New Jersey negligently, intentionally and/or with reckless disregard hired and retained Alvarez.

Brennan "is pursuing justice through this lawsuit because I couldn’t get it any other way,” her lawyer said.

“She pursued every avenue she could, but waved every red flag she could access, and she was ignored," McClure said. "As Ms. Brennan has said, if she cannot get justice through currently available complaint systems, who can? It should never have come to this, but every opportunity to take meaningful action was met with disregard.”

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