Sep. 18—A Santa Fe jury has awarded $650,800 to a former state Fire Marshal's Office employee after determining she endured retaliation and was not promoted because she was a woman.
Jurors awarded Carrie Ann DeAguero $400,800 for lost wages, according to a special verdict form, and $250,000 for emotional distress. As of Monday, the state had spent $386,579 litigating the matter, according to the General Services Department, bringing the price tag for the case to more than $1 million.
The jury returned its verdict in the case, filed in 2018, last week after a five-day trial.
DeAguero said in a complaint filed in state District Court she had worked for the Fire Marshal's Office since 2004 and hoped to be promoted to an open bureau chief position, but claimed her professional aspirations were stymied in 2014 after then-state Fire Marshal Don Shainin called her into his office and denied having an affair with a co-worker.
DeAguero's complaint said she told Shainin she didn't feel comfortable discussing his private life and left his office. She said he began to undermine her at work and subsequently played a pivotal role in denying her the promotion.
DeAguero said in the complaint she questioned whether Shainin should be allowed to participate in the hiring process for the bureau chief job because he had been openly hostile to her and because the co-worker he'd denied having a relationship with also was being interviewed for the position.
Despite her concerns, DeAguero said in her lawsuit, Shainin remained on the hiring panel, and she didn't get the job.
According to DeAguero's lawsuit, score sheets she obtained through a records request showed if Shainin had not been part of the panel, she would have been the highest-scoring candidate.
Instead, Shainin told her "a gentleman from Texas" had been hired for the job.
DeAguero, a self-described "female Hispanic of national origin Mexican," said in her lawsuit the white male who got the job received lower scores from the interview panel than she did.
The Fire Marshal's Office investigates arson and operates a training academy for firefighters, among other duties. At the time, it was a division of the Public Regulation Commission, which along with Shainin was named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
DeAguero declined to comment through her attorney.
Shainin, who no longer works for the Fire Marshal's Office, did not respond to a phone message left with a relative Monday.
An attorney for the defendants referred questions to the Public Regulation Commission.
"The suit arises from the State Fire Marshal's Office, which is no longer housed at our agency," Commission Chief of Staff Cholla Khoury wrote in an email Monday.
The Fire Marshal's Office now is under the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The agency's public information office did not respond to an email seeking comment.
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