BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The University of Alabama at Birmingham was ordered to pay nearly $4 million to an Iranian-born former cancer research scientist who said a co-worker harassed her for nine years because of her nationality.
Dr. Fariba Moeinpour, 62, sued the university in Oct. 2021, alleging the employee harassed her daily but that the school ignored her complaints, Inside Higher Ed reports. Moeinpour is a naturalized U.S. citizen who began working at the UAB lab in Feb. 2011 until she was fired in Feb. 2020 after a confrontation with her supervisor.
The co-worker, identified in the lawsuit as Mary Jo Cagle, allegedly told her she had a “weird a** name” and to “go back to Iran.” Cagle is also accused of driving her car at Moeinpour and her daughter in the UAB parking lot, pointing a gun at them, and calling them a racial epithet.
RELATED ARTICLE: OCR Issues Dear Colleague Letter on Ethnic Discrimination in Schools
Lawsuit: UAB Lab Supervisor Attacked Scientist After She Reported Harassment
Moeinpour said she complained multiple times to human resources and her supervisor, Clinton Grubbs. Grubbs, who is not named in the suit, reportedly said he could not do anything about Cagle because he “would lose his job or be killed or would kill himself,” according to AL.com. Grubbs told Moeinpour that Cagle “was in the mafia” and that when he threatened to fire her, four men showed up at his house and shoved him into his car.
The suit says when Moeinpour went to Grubbs’ office to complain that no action was taken against Cagle, he called the police and threatened to ruin her reputation, stating the conversations about Moeinpour’s complaints were “his word against hers.” When Moeinpour said she could prove what they had discussed, Grubbs reportedly “grabbed Ms. Moeinpour by the chin and knocked her down, cutting her face with his nails and causing her to bleed.” He then allegedly fell on top of her and held her down, and Moeninpour slapped him in response.
When a UAB police officer arrived, Moeninpour admitted that she hit Grubbs “to try to make him stop attacking and groping her,” according to the suit. The officer then escorted Moeninpour out of the building and she subsequently fainted after the officer said she was being arrested. The suit claims when Moeninpour woke up, she was belted to a gurney in the emergency room with her ankle and wrists handcuffed. She was later taken to jail and held overnight.
In a UAB police report, Moeinpour was described as an “out of control” aggressor, but Grubbs told police he did not want to press charges and that he and Moeninpour “had been in a relationship in the past year.” Moeinpour said they never had a romantic relationship. She was ultimately fired on Feb. 13, 2020, for “violating its policy against fighting and absenteeism, despite knowing that Ms. Moeinpour had said she was attacked by Grubbs and without interviewing her or asking her for evidence to substantiate her claims.”
UAB, Co-Worker Ordered to Pay Plaintiff
Witness accounts and audio recordings that corroborated Moeinpour’s claims were presented to the jury throughout the four-year trial, U.S. News reports. One witness, a mall security guard, described an encounter where Cagle followed Moeinpour and her daughter around the mall and called them racial epithets. Moeinpour’s lawyers also provided the jury with documentation of her repeated attempts to report her harassment to human resources.
RELATED ARTICLE: Springfield, Ohio: 2 Schools, 1 University, Local Hospitals Receive Threats Disparaging Haitian Migrants
The federal jury determined Cagle acted with “malice and reckless indifference” to Moeinpour’s federally protected rights on the basis of her nationality. The jury also ruled that the university’s decision to arrest Moeinpour constituted “adverse employment action.” On Monday, the jury ordered UAB to pay Moeninpour $3.8 million while Cagle was ordered to pay her $500,000 in compensatory damages and $325,000 in punitive damages.
“Day and night, I was looking for a job, any job, but nobody would hire me because my name was tarnished,” Moeinpour told NBC News. “Now, my good name has been restored.”
UAB spokeswoman Alicia Rohan said the university “does not tolerate harassment, retaliation or discrimination of any kind.” She also said the university disagrees with the verdict and is “considering next steps.”
