Caltrans sues former employee in sexual harassment case

The California Department of Transportation has filed a lawsuit against a former supervisor this week to ask him for financial help after a jury in Sacramento found that he had sexually harassed another state agency employee.

A Sacramento judge ordered Caltrans and Steven Medina, the former supervisor, was ordered to pay Sarah Schimpf and her legal team a total of $850,000 in damages and attorney fees last year.

The trucking company has asked a Sacramento County Court in California to force Medina to pay a portion of the $275,000 in damages and attorney fees Caltrans paid to Schimpf and her legal team, and $575,000. Caltrans wants Medina to reimburse the company for some of that amount.

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Medina did not appear at the trial and was not represented by an attorney.

Schimpf filed her lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court in October 2020, alleging that Medina had sexually harassed her for years. She said she had reported Medina to the agency multiple times and that Caltrans had failed to prevent the harassment as required by the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Caltrans declined to respond to a list of questions, citing ongoing litigation. Medina could not be reached for comment.

Medina was a Caltrans maintenance area supervisor when Schimpf filed the complaint, the filing said. Schimpf was an employee of the agency. Court documents do not indicate that Medina was her supervisor.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Schimpf currently works as an office technician at Caltrans. However, she did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Schimpf and Medina had a consensual sexual relationship for three months in 2018, according to Schimpf’s complaint. In July of that year, she told Medina that she no longer wanted to continue their relationship and informed him that his sexual conduct was unwanted.

According to the complaint, Medina continued to harass Schimpf between 2018 and 2020 by sending her unwanted messages via his Caltrans phone and email, parking his Caltrans vehicle in front of Schimpf’s home, and directing others at the agency to mistreat her.

Schimpf notified Caltrans management of the harassment in December 2019. The following month, she was told an investigation was not warranted, her complaint said.

Months later, she went back to management and showed evidence that Medina had named Schimpf in his public diary.

In April 2020, the state agency opened an investigation into Schimpf’s discrimination complaint, but she was later told by a Caltrans manager that Medina’s harassment was “a strictly private matter” and that the agency would take no action to stop the harassment, court documents show.

In April 2023, a Sacramento jury found that Medina had severely and pervasively harassed Schimpf. The jury also found that the state agency knew about the harassment and failed to take appropriate action to stop it.

Superior Court Judge Jill Talley ordered Caltrans and Medina to pay Schimpf $275,000 in damages. The transportation department paid Schimpf last October. Caltrans paid another $575,000 in attorney fees. Schimpf’s attorney, Nicholas Scardigli, did not respond to a request for comment.

Caltrans alleges in the agency’s filing against Medina that the former employee failed to respond to the agency’s demand for compensation for damages.

Caltrans indicated in court documents that, in addition to Schimpf’s attorney fees, the agency also incurred attorney fees, litigation costs and other expenses as a result of Medina’s misconduct.

Caltrans asked a judge to review the case and determine the proportionate share owed to Medina and five other unnamed defendants, who Caltrans said were partly responsible for their failure to stop Schimpf’s harassment.