Former Westmoreland jail warden sues commissioner, alleges discrimination and emotional distress

The former longtime warden of the Westmoreland County Prison sued county Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher this week, claiming in the lawsuit that “relentless and baseless harassment, discrimination and retaliation” forced him to retire early.

John Walton, 62, filed the federal lawsuit Monday, alleging discrimination, harassment and retaliation based on sex, age and political beliefs. He also claimed intentional inflection of emotional distress.

Thrasher on Tuesday said she could not comment on the details of the lawsuit but said she is “looking forward to the truth coming out.”

Walton, who retired from his post in November, alleged Thrasher directed him to hire and promote her political allies and, when he objected on the grounds it would discriminate against qualified minorities and women, she “embarked on a never-ending campaign” to get rid of him. He cited her numerous moves to fire him and claimed she “weaponized” the county’s human resources department with “unfounded complaints and … sham investigations.”

Thrasher called for Walton’s firing first in 2016, pointing to reports of jail mismanagement. In 2018, she again moved for Walton to be fired, blaming him for the suicide of a suspended guard.

Walton wrote in the lawsuit that the guard in question, Henry “Sonny” Caruso III, was Thrasher’s “family friend, political supporter and donor.” Caruso was suspended in 2018 after county officials learned he was a potential target in an ongoing human trafficking investigation involving his wife’s massage parlors. Caruso shot himself in November 2018.

In the aftermath, Thrasher demanded Walton be removed from his position: “For years, I voiced my disgust with the warden,” she said at the time. Walton demanded an apology in 2019 and filed complaints with the Westmoreland County Prison Board. Several months later, he alleged, he received a handwritten letter from Caruso’s widow “in which she detailed a deal between Caruso, (Thrasher) and others to protect Caruso’s family if Walton was removed as warden.”

Also in 2019, Walton said he filed complaints of age and sex discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He alleged in the lawsuit that the harassment persisted, as did Thrasher’s “relentless efforts to have Walton fired.” He pointed to public comments made by Thrasher in which she called him a Neanderthal, said he ran the prison like a “circus” and remarked he couldn’t take orders from a “female superior.”

Walton said in the lawsuit he had done an exemplary job over the 17 years he was warden.

In July 2020, Walton noted, he was one of just two prison employees who did not receive a pay raise. He submitted his resignation to the prison board two months later, detailing in a letter the alleged “public character assassination and campaign of harassment.”

Walton is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.