Benjamin Franklin bridge in Philadelphia. Photo: Shutterstock

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued the Defender Association of Philadelphia over claims that the agency failed to properly accommodate a supervising attorney in the juvenile unit who allegedly developed major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder from handling sex crime cases.

The EEOC filed the lawsuit April 26 on behalf of attorney Megan Perez in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The suit, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Defender Association of Philadelphia, alleges the Defender Association violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and seeks economic and punitive damages.

“The ADA is designed to keep people with disabilities working, and that includes providing a reasonable accommodation such as a transfer instead of termination, which harms the employee as well as the employer,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Debra M. Lawrence said in a press release. “The EEOC will continue to enforce this indispensable federal law.”

According to the 10-page complaint, Perez began working for the association as a full-time attorney in 2007, and for the first five years she rotated through most of the units, including handling preliminary hearings, motions court, juvenile, felony waivers and major trials. In 2012, she was promoted to the position of assistant supervisor of the Juvenile Special Cases section, where part of her duties involved defending juveniles charged with sex crimes, the complaint said. She was promoted as supervisor of the section the following year.

In June 2014, Perez was assigned as a sexually violent predator specialist—a position she allegedly told the association she was not comfortable with. According to the complaint, she was told the special assignment would only last two years. However, the complaint said, the assignment lasted about 30 months, and she was subsequently re-assigned to the Juvenile Special Cases section, where she again defended juveniles facing sex crime charges.

The complaint said Perez began treating with a licensed clinical social worker in mid-2017, and, on the advice of her therapist, she took a leave of absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act soon after. In August 2017, Perez was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and PTSD, which, the complaint said, “were caused, in part, by her work as an SVP specialist and in the JSCS.”

In September 2017, she met with her supervisors and requested medical leave until January 2018, as well as a transfer to a unit that does not involve sex-based crimes. The complaint said the supervisors agreed to Perez's return and re-assignment. However, two months later, Perez was told by two human resource representatives that she would be fired because she could no longer be covered under the association's malpractice insurance, since she was being placed on long-term disability.

In its complaint, the EEOC said the association had numerous positions it could have transferred Perez to. The complaint also said that, after Perez filed a charge of discrimination, the EEOC issued the association a letter, saying it had reasonable cause to believe the association violated the ADA, but the parties were unable to come to a settlement.

Chief Public Defender Keir Bradford-Grey referred comment to Littler Mendelson attorney Richard Harris. Harris did not return a call for comment Monday.