Willimantic Housing Authority. Photo by Google

A former employee of the Willimantic Housing Authority has filed a federal lawsuit against the public housing agency, claiming she was ridiculed because of her race and disability and then wrongfully terminated.

In her lawsuit, filed Feb. 15 in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut, Katherine Cardona said Kim Haddad, the authority's executive director, repeatedly demeaned and discriminated against her.

The lawsuit, which seeks an unspecified amount of punitive damages, back pay and front pay damages, alleges Haddad and the authority violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title III of the federal Americans with Disability Act.

A resident of Willimantic in Windham County, Cardona is 53 and Hispanic. She suffers from hearing loss. She alleges in the lawsuit that Haddad and others demeaned her on numerous occasions. During one incident, the lawsuit claims Haddad and assistant director Judy Smith would intentionally speak in a low voice, despite being aware of Cardona's hearing disability. In addition, the lawsuit states, “Haddad targeted Hispanics to discriminate against” by instructing Cardona and other Hispanic employees “not to speak Spanish in the office, without giving the employees any reason for this instruction.”

“It was a nightmare for my client to work there,” said Cardona's attorney, Jamie Sullivan, a managing partner at Hartford-based Howard Kohn Sprague & FitzGerald. “There was ongoing verbal abuse and a demeaning attitude by Ms. Haddad toward my client for years.”

Cardona, who worked as a public housing leasing clerk and then moved to the position of Section 8 leasing clerk, worked for the authority for five years until she was fired in March 2018. Her suit says she was absent from work on Feb. 20, 2018. While the authority allowed Cardona's medical provider to give electronically signed medical notes without an actual signature in the past when she missed work, this time, Sullivan said, the authority demanded a signed note explaining her absence.

On March 4, nearly two weeks after her absence from work, Cardona explained to Haddad that she waited at the medical facility walk-in clinic but left before being seen because there was a long wait time, and because she felt anxious, nauseous and had migraines.

The next day, on March 5, the authority had a predisciplinary hearing on the absence with Cardona, Haddad and a union representative. During that hearing Cardona reiterated her reasons for leaving the clinic, according to the lawsuit. But Haddad fired her the same day.

Sullivan said Cardona was fired without just cause, and suggested the agency continues to act against its former employee.

“They are trying to contest her right to receive unemployment,” Sullivan said. “They claim she was guilty of misconduct related to the medical note. It's all a frivolous denial of her rights to collect unemployment.”

As of press time, the housing authority had not assigned an attorney to the case, and neither Haddad nor Smith responded to a request for comment Tuesday.

The matter is scheduled to be heard in front of Judge Warren Eginton.