Stanislaus Sheriff freed from lawsuit

Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson no longer is named as a defendant in a lawsuit that claims officials in his department retaliated against three women who complained that they were the victims of racial discrimination.

The lawsuit is going forward, with a trial expected to begin Nov. 3.

Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Roger Beauchesne on Tuesday dismissed two final claims against Christianson, leaving the county and Undersheriff Bill Heyne as the defendants in the lawsuit.

"I'm pleased that I've been dismissed from this case and I'm confident that the remaining claims will be dealt with at trial, if we get there at all," Christianson said.

Christianson maintains that the claims filed by employees Jackie Bernal, Charmaine Morad-Daniel and Marlena Younan lack merit.

They are seeking an unspecified sum of money through the lawsuit. They filed their claim in July 2008 with a fourth Sheriff's Department employee, Alejandra Arenivaz. She has since dropped her case against the department.

The women allege that the Sheriff's Department retaliated against them after Morad-Daniel complained that Heyne had referred to her as an "organizational terrorist." They assert that they have been denied promotions or placed under a higher degree of scrutiny than other employees because of that complaint.

Beauchesne significantly narrowed the scope of the lawsuit at a hearing Tuesday, throwing out Bernal's and Younan's claims that they were the victims of harassment and the county's failure to prevent that harassment.

Beauchesene on Monday appeared ready to let those claims go forward. He generally sided with the women in a tentative ruling he issued that rejected a motion from the county to dismiss the entire case. The county's argument at the public hearing Tuesday, however, swayed him to move in favor of Christianson and the Sheriff's Department on several of the counts.

"The county presented a persuasive argument at the hearing this morning," Assistant County Counsel Ed Burroughs said.

Bernal and Younan can continue to press claims that the county retaliated against them.

Morad-Daniel's claims are moving forward nearly unchanged. She claims she was the victim of harassment, the county's failure to prevent harassment, retaliation and discrimination. Heyne is named as a defendant in her claims.

"There's no change," said her attorney, Jeff Hubins. "We're going to trial on the issues that really matter to us, and that's the retaliation."

Bee assistant city editor Adam Ashton can be reached at aashton@modbee.com or 578-2366.