Woman Alleges Workplace Sexual Harassment, Discrimination At TPD In Lawsuit Against City

TUSCALOOSA, AL — A longtime Tuscaloosa Police dispatcher has filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against the City of Tuscaloosa that alleges discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation.

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According to a 32-page complaint filed in late April in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Amber Burroughs Azwell claims she has a disability and was subjected to ongoing intentional discrimination, sexual and personal harassment, and retaliation while working for the Tuscaloosa Police Department.

Employed with the City of Tuscaloosa since 2004, Azwell was promoted in the summer of 2020 to work as a terminal agency coordinator for the National Crime Information Center, with TPD Captain Lachlan Chronister assigned as her immediate supervisor.

Azwell claims she was harassed by Chronister after she first filed a police report in September 2022 as a victim of domestic violence by her husband — a 21-year veteran of the Tuscaloosa police officer — before then filing a second report for harassment the following December.

The complaint states that her husband resigned from TPD and Azwell claims that her work environment became noticeably hostile thereafter.

Azwell goes on to then allege that on Dec. 22, 2022, TPD Major Heath Clark told her that if she was seen talking to the same male employees, she ran the risk of being viewed as a "loose woman" who pursues sexual relationships with men in the workplace.

Azwell considered Clark’s statement as sexual harassment and also claimed that he made other comments about her body and losing weight.

She insists the harassment from her supervisor intensified in June 2023 when Azwell said Chronister openly degraded her work performance and informed her she would not be able to take paid leave for her divorce proceedings

Chronister is also accused of removing Azwell's overtime schedule and denying her work on the weekends, along with openly discussing her unspecified disability and telling her he could "fix her."

That June, Azwell says she forwarded an email to Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley that showed Chronister’s denial of leave, before then reporting the harassment to Blankley.

She also claims to have told Blankley that she feared Chronister was trying to have her fired and that he was openly talking about her disability to others in the office.

The lawsuit says Blankley brought both parties together for a meeting to address the complaints, but Azwell insists that the harassment only got worse.

Azwell goes on to claim in the complaint that Chronister also retaliated against her after she submitted a complaint alleging sexual harassment by TPD Sgt. Jackson Price.

Azwell explained that, following a doctor's recommendation, she began to exercise in the TPD gym from September 2021 through December 2023.

During this time, she claims that Price began engaging in unwanted and unsolicited sexual banter and flirtatious behavior with her during her time in the gym. While the lawsuit states that the majority of Price’s comments were made to Azwell in private, other TPD employees reportedly observed Price's conduct.

At one point, Azwell alleges that Price forcefully grabbed her hand and placed it on his pelvis, abs and "private area," in addition to grabbing her buttocks and private area and physically pulling her body up against his.

The following June, TPD placed Azwell on administrative after Price complained that she touched him without his consent before being told that she was being investigated for sexual harassment.

Azwell denied the allegations and, instead, argued that the complaint was retaliation for the complaints she had previously made against Chronister.

After she was placed on leave, she says Chronister bragged in the workplace to police officers and other employees that she was not coming back and would be fired.

What's more, she claims the City of Tuscaloosa's Human Resource Office circulated Price’s complaints and a partial video taken by Price to defame and retaliate against her. Azwell said this had a "chilling effect" on her and other female employees, before speculating that this was done to dissuade other female employees from submitting complaints.

Azwell goes on to allege that she confronted Price later about his false claims of sexual harassment.

Price then denied filing a complaint, she said, before informing her that it had been Chronister, who was actively working to have her fired. Azwell also said Price told her to "trust no one and to watch her back."

Nevertheless, Azwell says that she provided evidence that Price was harassing her, which included text messages from Price to Azwell.

In August 2023, Azwell was exonerated of any wrongdoing of sexual harassment and was allowed to return to work. At this time, she says Blankley informed her that Price had requested “no contact” with her moving forward.

She also said she returned to work to find that her office space was in "complete disarray," after TPD employees had been allowed to rifle through her personal and office items.

Her name on the door had been removed, Azwell said, and some of her items were boxed up or otherwise missing.

The harassment by Chronister is also alleged to have continued, with Azwell asserting that he was angry that she had not been disciplined or fired. As a result, she said others in the department began to ostracize her.

In another example she provided, Azwell claimed she was removed by Chronister from teaching a class to new recruits. She also accused him of removing her ability to flex hours and limited her overtime work to dispatch, before specifically excluding her from overtime while working in the NCIC TAC.

Azwell filed a written complaint to the city in October 2023, but said the city refused to investigate it and she was approached in the TPD gym by Price the following November after he had requested to not have contact with her.

During this time, she says Price made efforts to befriend her and confided to her that he felt harassed by Chronister and was considering filing a complaint against her supervisor.

He then allegedly asked Azwell if she was going to escalate her complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

A few days before Christmas 2023, Price again was accused of making sexually explicit comments to Azwell and "groped her body, forcibly kissed her lips, and asked her for sex."

Azwell claims she rejected his advances, but said they continued until Dec. 26, when Price filed a formal complaint with the city's Human Resources department alleging that Azwell had sexually harassed him.

After several other interactions with city officials after her initial complaint, Azwell says she was told on Jan. 19 that the city was ending her employment. She says she was given the option to resign or be fired and said she was given resignation documents to sign that claimed, falsely, that she had violated the city's harassment policy.

A pre-disciplinary hearing was then set for Jan. 29, before it was continued and reset for Feb. 5.

The lawsuit filed in federal court then says on March 8, the pre-disciplinary hearing officer from the city’s Human Resources department issued the decision, finding that no reasonable basis existed to believe the accusations against Azwell were true, before saying the evidence did not support disciplinary action against her.

Azwell was finally allowed to return to work on March 25 and said she was assigned a new supervisor, going on to claim she has been subject to constant monitoring and her office had once again been ransacked.

The six-count lawsuit alleges the following violations: Title VII sexual discrimination; hostile work environment; Retaliation; ADA/ADAAA Disability Discrimination; ADA/ADAAA hostile workplace; and ADA/ADAAA retaliation.

Azwell is requesting that a judge grant her back pay, lost benefits, compensatory damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, court costs, interest, and attorneys’ fees incurred by the filing of the lawsuit.

The Tuscaloosa Police Department and the City of Tuscaloosa both told Patch that officials were unable to comment on the myriad accusations due to the lawsuit being a matter of ongoing litigation.

Tuscaloosa Patch has reached out to Azwell for comment but had not received a response as of the publication of this story.

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