Trial to put spotlight on prison officials, claims about sexual harassment, retaliation

LANSING — They oversee the housing and feeding of tens of thousands of Michigan prisoners, but some Corrections Department wardens and senior managers have their own skeletons in the closets.

Some of that dirty laundry is expected to be aired in a lawsuit set to go to trial in Lansing on Monday.

Elements of the case are consistent with a 2018 Free Press investigation that found women employees of the Michigan Department of Corrections have faced widespread sexual discrimination and harassment and often retaliation if they complained about it.

But the case in Ingham County Circuit Court also features testimony about a litany of other transgressions. Those include drinking and driving by prison managers, alleged cronyism involving former department director Dan Heyns, who surrounded himself with a group of managers from his hometown known as "the Jackson Five," and top-level interference in investigations conducted by the department's internal affairs section.

Former Central Michigan Correctional Facility warden Jeff Larson, who is suing the department, says he was demoted to a unit manager's position in Ionia — which paid $38,000 a year less — because he advocated for the promotion of a female subordinate, Larriann Ludwick, who faced discrimination from his supervisor, whom he considered sexist.

Larson's supervisor, assistant deputy director Michael Curley, couldn't believe Larson would recommend his administrative assistant for promotion unless Larson and Ludwick were having an affair — which both have denied —  according to testimony in the case.

"To Curley, women are simply sexual objects who have no value apart from their ability to sexually please men," Larson attorney James Fett of Pinckney said in a court filing. "They certainly could not be competent employees."

Ludwick testified in a deposition that when she was applying for a deputy warden's position, Curley told her: "You're an attractive woman — you don't have to worry about your career." Curley then asked Ludwick to get him a cup of coffee, and said: "Stop acting like you're on your period," Ludwick testified.

Curley denies telling Larson and others he thought Larson was sleeping with Ludwick, but the department acknowledged that in 2016 Curley received a four-day suspension after using a vulgar term to say he planned to hire the applicant for a secretary's job who had large breasts.

And court records show the department in 2017 paid $190,000 to settle a sexual discrimination suit brought by Ludwick, whom Curley refused to promote. Among the allegations in Ludwick's suit was that Curley, who has since retired, took a golf club and rubbed it along the inside of her thigh at a department golf outing.

Curley, who retired in the last two years, claimed he was trying to hand Ludwick a club when it accidentally brushed against her, according to court filings.

More:Female officers face widespread sexual harassment in Michigan's prison system

More:Female parole officer settles sexual harassment suit for $1.1M

Fett said in a court filing that Curley also was the subject of an earlier internal affairs investigation after he allegedly retaliated against another female employee, Delores Rankin-Crosby, when Curley was warden at Muskegon Correctional Facility.

Rankin-Crosby, who was the prison's discriminatory harassment coordinator, was fired after filing a complaint against Curley over a derogatory remark she said she heard him direct toward another female employee, records show. The department deemed the allegation against Curley to be false, but Rankin-Crosby sued the department and won a $224,000 verdict, which the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld in 2014. Curley was not disciplined.

The department denies Larson was retaliated against because he advocated for Ludwick, and argues Curley didn't make that decision, which was ultimately signed off on by the department director, Heyns. It says Larson was demoted four levels because he didn't comply with court requirements to drive only for work purposes and stay away from licensed establishments after his second drunk driving conviction. The department also says Larson asked a subordinate to drive him to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings during work hours, an allegation that is denied by Larson and by other department employees who testified they drove Larson to AA meetings during their lunch breaks.

In explaining her decision to demote Larson, Corrections Department official Kathy Warner, who handled discipline, said in a deposition that Larson was "the highest ranking official at a prison who was responsible for the overall operations, the budget."

Larson was "supposed to lead by example, be the role model, and set the tone of the facility," Warner said. "And certainly this type of conduct does not emulate that."

Ludwick, who retired in 2018, also has a drunk driving conviction, from 2012, which was the only infraction on her work record, according to testimony in her lawsuit

Larson, who worked more than 25 years for the department until he retired 2017, was "a rising star" in the department when he was named warden of Central Michigan Correctional Facility in St. Louis in February 2013, according to court filings.

On Dec. 1, 2013, Larson was arrested for drunk driving for the second time while returning home from a football game. He took responsibility and was suspended for five days, but Heyns exercised his discretion to allow Larson to keep his warden's job, according to deposition testimony. Larson was accepted into the Mid-Michigan Sobriety Court, where the requirements included attending 90 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 90 days.

Curley agreed that Larson could attend noon meetings for a couple of weeks, until he found a night meeting, and knew that co-workers were driving him to meetings, according to a court brief filed by Fett.

Ludwick, who as administrative assistant was one rank below deputy warden, applied for promotion in January 2014, and Larson highly recommended her.

After she was turned down in February, with Curley on the small interview panel where Larson alleges he had substantial influence, Ludwick met privately with Curley in June 2014 in the hopes of clearing the air. She said that "Curley began ranting about Jeff and his faults and him being an idiot for endorsement of Ludwick," according to court records.

Larson reported what he considered to be Curley's discriminatory attitude toward Ludwick to supervisors when she again applied for promotion in July. Curley was again on the interview panel and Ludwick was again turned down.

In August or September 2014, Larson arranged for Ludwick and Curley to be together on a golf outing, hoping that socializing might ease her promotion.

"His hopes were dashed on the 18th hole," when Curley took a golf course and rubbed it against Ludwick's thigh, between her legs, according to a court filing in Larson's lawsuit.

"Ludwick was so embarrassed and humiliated that, after seeing the look on Jeff's face, she left without finishing the game."

Larson told Ludwick to make a written report about the incident and referred her to a harassment counselor, though she didn't file a complaint against Curley until shortly after the department opened an investigation into Larson, records say.

In October, Larson was stopped near a casino he had visited for license plate and restricted-license violations. Though the license plate problem was due to a mix-up with Larson's son, and both charges were dismissed, Larson spent four days in jail. Fett said in a court filing sheriff's deputies were waiting for Larson — who was only supposed to drive back and forth to work and wasn't supposed to go to places where alcohol is served —  after prison officials tipped them off that Larson might be driving to places he shouldn't.

The department said Larson didn't immediately report the arrest internally in the way that was required.

Internal affairs then opened an investigation that "turned into a rigged witch hunt" against both Larson and Ludwick, who had accompanied Larson to the casino, Fett argued in court filings. There's no allegation Larson drank alcohol and he abstains to this day, he said.

Curley was able to get away with "antics" like what happened during the golf outing because he ingratiated himself with "the Jackson Five," the managers from the Jackson area whom Heyns, the former sheriff there, appointed when he took office, Larson claims in  his suit.

Heyns could not be reached for comment Friday and department spokesman Chris Gautz declined to comment.

After Ludwick filed a complaint, "Curley was furious with Jeff because he continued to associate with and defend Ludwick and enthusiastically recommended her for promotion," Fett argued. Curley has denied this in a deposition.

The close-knit group around Heyns, with Curley's input, made the decision to demote Larson as an act of retaliation, he said. 

Also deposed in the lawsuit is Stephen Marschke, who was placed back in charge of internal affairs in September 2016 after his position as administrator of that unit was abolished in May 2012.

Marschke testified in a 2017 deposition that the Heyns administration was "extremely manipulative in the investigative process."

He testified there was a double standard in terms of whom the department decided to investigate and how discipline was meted out.

"People were returned to work when the recommendation would be for termination," Marschke testified, and senior officials sought to influence investigations while they were ongoing.

The department has filed a motion asking that Marschke's testimony be excluded from the trial, since he was not at internal affairs in 2014, when Larson was investigated.

Contact Paul Egan at 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.  Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.