Police Employee in Newport Suit Goes on Stress Leave

Gloria Miller, one of the 10 female Police Department employees suing over alleged sexual harassment, began a three-month stress-related medical leave Thursday, claiming a hostile work environment and retaliation from top management against those involved in the suit.

“It’s been going on for weeks and months and I just can’t take it anymore. I like my job, I wanted to be able to stay there, but I just can’t take it,” said Miller, 36, an administrative assistant at the department who left work Thursday afternoon for a doctor’s appointment and did not return.

Instead, the doctor sent the city documentation of Miller’s physical and emotional stress. She will be paid a portion of her salary during the leave.

Only two of the 10 plaintiffs in the lawsuit--which charges that Capt. Anthony Villa sexually harassed women and that former Chief Arb Campbell knowingly condoned it, and that the pair raped a dispatcher after a police party in 1981--remain on the job.

Four others have taken stress-related medical leaves since joining the suit, two have been on medical leave since the summer, and one was fired before the suit began.

Campbell was fired in December, and the city has also taken steps to fire Villa. Both men have been on leave since October. The city “has taken some baby steps but (there’s) a long way to go to really make things right,” said Steven Pingel, the attorney representing the women. “I don’t think (they have) solved the problems.”

Pingle said he will add defendants to the lawsuit if he finds evidence of ongoing harassment and discrimination.

Miller, who worked directly for Villa in the traffic division and joined the suit Dec. 15, alleges inappropriate comments were made behind her back, some things were said directly to her, and she was discriminated against on the job. She would not describe any specific incidents.

“The followers of (Campbell and Villa) are still there and they’re still doing the same things,” said Miller, a single mother of two who joined the department in 1990. “I have to work. One of the main reasons I didn’t want to come forward all of this time was because of retaliation, and I’m getting retaliation.”

Miller’s supervisors admitted there has been tension in the department since the lawsuit was filed but said they have tried to be sensitive.

“It is awkward. People are a little hesitant to go up and talk to her because we won’t know what she’s going through,” said Lt. Mike Jackson.

“The work environment is tense because there are many people who are unsure where other people are coming from, where their loyalties lie,” said Capt. Mike Blitch, a longtime friend of Villa who this week replaced him as head of the traffic division and Miller’s direct supervisor. “I don’t think it’s a hostile environment; I think it’s an uncertain environment.”