Mayor Maturo’s Sex Case Settles; How Much Will Ex Worker Get?

EAST HAVEN, CT - A sex harassment lawsuit filed by a former East Haven employee against Mayor Joseph Maturo has been settled - for $175,000 plus lifetime medical benefits for her and her husband - right before the start of the trial Wednesday.

Francine Carbone sued Maturo and the town of East Haven. The settlement payment is to be covered by the town

“The taxpayers and voters of East Haven will have to decide what they think about this,” Carbone said in a short interview after the settlement was reached. “It’s up to them.”

East Haven 3rd District Town Council member Joseph Carfora wasn’t happy that the case didn’t go to trial.

“A lot of voices were silenced today and those voices were the taxpayers of East Haven,” Carfora, a Democrat, said.

East Haven Town Attorney Joe Zullo released a statement about the settlement.

“This morning, on behalf of the taxpayers of the Town of East Haven and upon the authority of the Mayor, our legal team negotiated a swift and favorable conclusion to both the federal wage and overtime and state court lawsuits brought by Francine Carbone and that threatened to drain the Town’s coffers and rip apart the fiber of our community,” Zullo said.

“This morning, the Town of East Haven negotiated a compromise in which the Town will remit $175,000.00 dollars to Mrs. Carbone and provide her with medical benefits until age 65, along an inexpensive supplement thereafter - benefits Mrs. Carbone would have likely received had her employment not abruptly concluded in 2014. The compromise represents a conclusion to all of Mrs. Carbone’s employment and non-employment claims against the Town and which have been pending since 2015,” Zullo said.

Zullo added: “The Town secured a favorable and deserved victory on July 21, 2016 in the first of Mrs. Carbone’s three actions against the Town. Although we are confident that we would have prevailed in both the federal wage and overtime case and today’s state court proceedings, absent this morning’s favorable settlement, the Town could have found itself mired in costly, protracted litigation and appeals for years to come as any judgment in favor of the Town and Mayor would have been appealed by Mrs. Carbone.

“Today’s global compromise, which will be memorialized in a formal settlement agreement in the coming days, will contain no admission of liability as to any of Mrs. Carbone’s claims, all of which both the Town and the Mayor vehemently continue to deny,” Zullo’s statement concluded.

The three-year-old lawsuit charged the Republican mayor with sexually harassing Carbone.

In 2015, former Town Hall secretary Carbone filed a lawsuit, claiming she faced a continual pattern of harassment from Maturo, including inappropriate remarks and obscene gestures, since her employment began in January 1997. During one incident in 2013, Carbone claims Maturo exposed himself in her office.

From Jan. 25, 1997, to Oct. 17, 2014, Carbone was employed by the town. In October of 2014 she was fired.
According to the lawsuit, Maturo continually made comments regarding Carbone's body.

The complaint also alleges that Maturo grabbed his crotch in front of Carbone and in front of a town official.
The incident that Carbone first made involved Maturo allegedly exposing himself to her while she bent down to file documents in a cabinet. Carbone alleges that Maturo's behavior made her working conditions "intolerable," causing "severe emotional distress.

Carbone also filed a Family Medical Leave Act lawsuit, alleging the Maturo administration retaliated against her for taking medical leave.

She lost that case.