- By: Terry Camp
- Apr 19, 2022 Updated Apr 19, 2022
SAGINAW COUNTY, Mich. (WJRT) – A former Saginaw County employee says she was branded a racist for using an expression she used when helping a co-worker.
A favorite treat for many people is a chocolate chip cookie, but those words are at the center of a federal lawsuit against the county.
The former employee says she was disciplined for using the term “chocolate chip cookie” when she spoke to an African-American co-worker.
Julia Stewart was suspended. She says when she returned to her job, she was the target of harassment and a racial slur was directed towards her and she felt she was forced to resign.
“I baked cookies, cakes, its not uncommon to bring in something one a week,” says Stewart on her habit of bringing in treats for workers.
She would bring those treats to the Saginaw County Courthouse.
She was a supervisor in the Traffic Division. She supervised about nine people and when she helped them and was thanked, she would say this.
“You just owe me a cookie someday, you just owe me a cookie and she did this, we would do this over several months,” says Stewart.
In January 2021, she got a phone call from an employee that she had been helping.
“I answered it like, oh, its going to be a chocolate chip cookie, you know, it just came out chocolate chip cookie, like that is what you owe me for this favor I know you are going to ask me, because you are calling me on my lunch hour, obviously you need a favor,” Stewart recalls.
The worker she was speaking with is African-American.
“A couple of days after that I was notified that there was an investigation being opened because they filed a formal complaint about that,” says Stewart.
Court documents indicate Saginaw County hired an attorney to do an investigation and it was determined Stewart violated a county discrimination policy twice, once for using the term and the second for an apology county officials felt wasn’t sincere.
“They branded her a racist,” says her attorney, Kevin Kelly.
“I was suspended for three days,” says Stewart.
She says when she returned to work, it was not the same.
“One of the girls started referring to me as the white devil,” Stewart says.
“When she goes to complain that she is being referred to the white devil, which is racist, they don’t do anything and they tell her they are not going to do anything, and they tell her it’s going to get worse, so what is she going to do but get out of that situation,” says Kelly.
Stewart resigned this past February.
“This is just wrong, and pushing me out of a job that I loved, really,” says Stewart.
Kelly, who is with the Mastromarco Law Firm, says it’s Stewart who was the victim of discrimination and retaliation.
A four-count lawsuit has been filed against Saginaw County, asking for damages in excess of $75,000.
He claims the county didn’t follow its own policy on how to investigate a discrimination complaint.
“The policy requires two county employees to investigate it, they hired an attorney, they didn’t follow the policy,” says Kelly.
Stewart is working somewhere else now.
“I actually hide from people because I’m afraid to run into anyone from the county,” Stewart says.
We reached out to several county employees and officials for comment and all referred me to the county’s attorney, who we could not reach for comment about the claims in the lawsuit.
