The Air Force has awarded a former attorney at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base a $140,000 settlement following a federal job discrimination lawsuit, according to the Dayton Daily News.
Bridget Lyons, who was working as an attorney in the Air Force Materiel Command Law Office Acquisition Division, said in her complaint that she was not properly promoted, citing gender discrimination, retaliation and a hostile work environment.
Lyon's complaint alleged that in 2007, her superior Peter Ditalia told Lyons that he would see her "finished in the office." The complaint noted that the only witness to the incident was Col. Thomas Doyon who admitted that statement "could have been made" in a memo three years later.
Lyons was denied a promotion in 2009 and the complaint stated that Doyon "pre-selected a man, accelerated his promotion, created after-the-fact criteria, which he did not meet, and then provided varying reasons to Lyons for her non-selection." Lyons had been up for promotion multiple times in a two-year period. "It was a glass ceiling kind of situation," she said in the complaint. "No woman had been promoted in that division in that office. Ever."
The Air Force was granted a summary judgement in 2014 and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals found that there was no hostile work environment. However, the appellate court returned the rest of the case last year leading to mediation and settlement discussions.
The Air Force did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement and declined comment to the Dayton Daily News.
Mackenzie Wolf is an editorial intern for Military Times.
