11/17/2022
Here is the article in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin without the pay wall about one of my cases.
“Transgender man settles privacy, discrimination claims against Cook County
By Patricia Manson [email protected]
POSTED November 11, 2022 3:58 PM
Cook County paid $300,000 to a former employee who alleges he was subjected to harassment and denied work opportunities when his supervisor at the county jail disclosed his transgender status.
The settlement reached in a lawsuit filed by Logan M. Grimes resolves claims that his supervisor invaded his medical privacy in violation of his right to substantive due process and the county discriminated against him by subjecting him to a hostile work environment.
Grimes maintains he was mocked and harassed by his co-workers, denied work opportunities and ultimately forced to leave his position as a medical technician because of the disclosure.
The settlement agreement calls for Grimes to receive $230,000 and his attorney to receive $70,000.
The county did not acknowledge any wrongdoing by agreeing to the settlement.
Grimes is represented by Joanie Rae Wimmer of the Law Offices of Joanie Rae Wimmer in Oak Park.
Wimmer said individuals’ decision on whether to reveal their medical history — for example, their gender dysphoria or the medical treatment they received for the condition — is a personal one.
“There can be liability on the part of the person or entity who discloses a person’s transgender status,” she said.
Both the county and the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, which provides medical treatment at the jail, declined to comment.
Around 2000, Grimes was diagnosed with gender dysphoria. He was recognized legally and medically as male in 2003 and completed surgical treatment by 2006.
In February 2013, Grimes began working as a medical technician for the Cermak Health Services of Cook County, which provides medical care at the jail.
Grimes alleges there was a culture of transphobia at the jail and that transgender inmates were subjected to verbal abuse and acts of violence.
In September 2018, Grimes alleges, his supervisor, Melvin Judkins, told some of his co-workers that he is transgender.
Judkins’s disclosure prompted personnel at the jail to harass him, Grimes alleges. He maintains that three members of the jail’s Medication Team ignored him when he spoke to them and that a nurse told him individuals’ failure to disclose their transgender status is ‘how people get killed.’
Grimes also contends he was blocked from working in the division that houses transgender inmates because of his transgender status.
He lost friends as well as income and retirement benefits, Grimes maintains. He alleges he suffered multiple emotional distress and medical problems that include hypertension.
And the disclosure of his transgender status caused him to fear for his and his family’s safety if he continued to work at the jail, Grimes contends.
He went on unpaid leave in September 2018 — his request for paid leave was denied — and resigned from his job in February 2020.
Grimes got a job with the Chicago Fire Department that month.
Grimes filed his suit against Judkins and the county in federal court in Chicago in September 2019. He alleged Judkins violated his right to substantive due process and the county violated the Illinois Human Rights Act.
In April 2020, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman declined to dismiss the due process claim.
Feinerman held that gender dysphoria is a medical condition that cannot be revealed without the individual’s permission.
Feinerman also held Grimes adequately alleged that Judkins’ refusal to assign him to the division where transgender detainees are kept in protective custody amounted to segregation based on gender identity.
Feinerman denied the county’s motion to dismiss the claims against it in May 2020.
Wimmer said she is particularly pleased that Feinerman accepted her segregation claim.
The settlement was reached this week. Feinerman closed the case after the parties filed a stipulation of dismissal.
The case is Logan M. Grimes v. County of Cook, et al., No. 19 C 6091.
Cook County was represented by Assistant State’s Attorneys Colleen M. Harvey and Kathleen Cunniff Ori. Assistant State’s Attorney Miguel E. Larios represented Judkins.”
