Officers accuse former Ambridge chief of sexual harassment

Two part-time police officers in Ambridge filed a federal lawsuit against the borough and its former police chief on Wednesday alleging that he repeatedly sexually harassed them and that officials there did nothing to stop it.

Alexis Korol, who began working as a part-time police officer in November 2016, and Amanda Brown, who was hired as a part-time officer in October 2017, both allege that they were subjected to a sexually hostile work environment created by former police Chief James Mann.

The lawsuit also names as defendants borough manager Joseph Kauer and solicitor Richard F. Start for failing to take action against Mann.

Mann, 63, of Baden, was accused of falsifying time cards while he was out on disability and threatening his own officers if they cooperated with a state police investigation into the matter. He was charged in August 2018, and a jury found him not guilty of all counts in October.

A message left with Mann’s defense attorney was not immediately returned. Neither Kauer nor Start returned a message seeking comment.

According to the lawsuit, both Korol and Brown said that Mann repeatedly made inappropriate sexual comments toward them.

Korol also claims that Mann touched her inappropriately several times.

In the complaint, she said that on Dec. 8, 2016, at the end of taser training, Mann began rubbing the upper part of Korol’s back, “lifted up her shirt and pulled her sports bra away from her body to rub under her sports bra.”

In May 2017, Korol said that Mann grabbed her thigh to show her where to place a tourniquet if she were shot “and proceeded to rub her thigh until she stood up and walked away.”

Korol also said in the complaint that Mann regularly referred to her as “sexy Lexi,” and made inappropriate comments to her.

Brown alleges in the lawsuit that even before she was hired, during an interview, Mann told her that the hiring process included a physical agility test, “but that based on her ‘physique,’ she would not have to take it.”

Brown claims that Mann commented on her tattoos, once asking if she had a “tramp stamp” on her lower back and then showing disappointment when she said she did not, the lawsuit said.

He also once asked if she liked to be choked, referring to sexual asphyxiation, and said to other officers that Brown looked like a specific porn star, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, Korol told Ambridge Mayor David Drewnowski about the sexual harassment on April 3, 2018, who told her to file a formal complaint with either the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

Korol also submitted a written complaint to Kauer on April 9, 2018.

On April 12, 2018, Kauer referred the matter to the state Human Relations Commission. But, the complaint said, Kauer also told them the borough would retain a firm to do an independent investigation of the police department.

On May 25, the complaint said, both Brown and Korol were interviewed by that agency as part of the investigation.

Mann was charged by state police in August 2018.

On Sept. 10, 2018, the company retained by the borough, Corporate Security and Investigations Inc., told both women their report had been completed and turned over to the solicitor.

According to the lawsuit, Start sent an open letter to Ambridge residents and employees on Feb. 12, 2019, claiming that the investigation had still not been concluded.

No action was ever taken against Mann, the complaint said.

The lawsuit includes claims for sex harassment against the borough for creating a sexually hostile work environment and for not halting the behavior once it became aware of it, along with claims against Kauer and Start for “aiding, abetting, inciting, compelling or coercing” discriminatory practices.