A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an unhappy former member of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s security detail.
In a 27-page decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson rejected claims by former U.S. Capitol Police officer Luanne Lynn Moran that her supervisors had fired her in retaliation for filing complaints against fellow officers.
Capitol Police leaders, Jackson concluded, “advanced a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason” for Moran’s termination.
The tensions seem to date back as far as January 2005, when Moran filed an administrative complaint alleging that she had been discriminated against on basis of sex when she was denied a request to transfer to Pelosi’s protective detail. This complaint was eventually settled, and Moran was assigned to protect Pelosi, then the House speaker, in 2007.
In 2008, Moran filed two separate administrative complaints with the Capitol Police Office of Professional Responsibility. One complaint alleged a supervisor had made “sexually inappropriate comments to and about other female employees,” according to Jackson.
That same year, another agent filed a complaint against Moran, alleging Moran had called her “trash” and had told her to “get the f*** away from” Moran’s truck while on a protective detail in Washington, D.C. While on a protective detail in Napa, Calif., this other agent complained, Moran had allegedly said the agent should be shot with a BB gun.
Moran faced other complaints, as well.
Moran disputed the accounts concerning the comments about the other agent, leading to an inquiry in which supervisors concluded she had not been truthful.
“Two witnesses confirmed that Moran had used profanity,”Jackson recounted.
Moran was terminated in October 2011.
“The reason offered by defendant – its determination that plaintiff was untruthful during an official investigation – would constitute a legitimate, non-retaliatory basis for plaintiff’s termination, especially in light of defendant’s policies and the manner in which similar cases have been handled by defendant,” Jackson wrote.