possible we're a little more flexible on time limits in order to make sure that we get all the arguments out properly the only other thing i would many of the other thing i would mention is we do not allow video or audio recordings the same as we wouldn't if we were in new orleans and we will give you each your st five minutes of argument uninterrupted with that we will call case number october th two thousand and thirteen on december for two thousand and thirteen my client complained to a compliant so her immediate harassed for giving making this complaint to her immediate supervisor the next day my client went to her immediate supervisor mr mcgowan explaining that the absence that was given by mr per taken by a friend of his regarding gambling and within a female robbery this was presented to the core of the lower court  finally i want to go over holy and when she got to work she was forced to go to r rated op it and been forced to go to the police department to withdraw that complaint and it was done at all the you know as parents present you can a very unique position you know the parents police work for have you know you know everyone in the building this you then works for him and they all were probably she wanted to do well but if she didn't want to do it and her immediate supervisor was misled about the circumstances everything then hinges on her i'm not sure i don't know if you know and again that was done outside of the employment capacity but when he forced her to come to his office and when he threatened employment action he threatened her to be forced to take a lea what about the other problem no you've got to show causation because i think at some level your your claim as a you or your client was wrongfully terminated you're right you are ok well what about the fact that two people witnessed here is saying that she was suicidal and she was going to get a gun the i think again this is a factual issue and my client testified well but i did it i assume i assume from the fact that she was formally terminated after the leave expired several months of believe and they said it's time to come back to work now and she didn't she never came back but during the leave how much of that was she compensated or as if she were still on the payroll i'm not sure your honor honestly i asked employment all right we have your argument and you have a chance for rebuttal in a little bit and we'll hear from ms fishman ahmed plays a court your honors deborah fishman i am a half of the apple a the st bernard parish government that will probably refer to as only said bernard or the parish we appreciate the privilege to argue before you and before we go into basically our scripted argument we would like to respond  take leave for almost one month and it was paid leave then and i realize i'm getting ahead here of our argument but what is very telling and it's record appeal believe it's not in twenty nine there is an e mail that miss schaefer sent to billy mco a who was her boss who was a supervisor he's an attorney in the legal department fact it was really a that point out one day and legal department paralegal saying and this is january st two thousand and fourteen i have post traumatic stress disorder and i want to take them will leave so if that point next day january there's no record evidence that she was forced to take leave other than her own self serving testimony and what flies in the face of that argument is her email to her boss billy mcgaughey that says i want to family she's not saying i can't come to work forever she's not saying i'm resigning she's taking the family says she's an employee she availed herself of the family medical leave act and then she decides not to come back to work that's not a construct of this charge and i'll tell you one of the reason why it isn't judge the alleged rape in the marital home that was perpetrated by ms shafer's then incident on december th or th so she continued to work for what five weeks after the alleged rape so if she if the conditions were so intolerable that you couldn't watch to live with st seen leaving the st bernard parish governmental complex hand in hand with her husband mr peralta they then go to disney world and it's it's in the record it's in mr magoo deposition so those facts certainly cut into any argument that ms schaefer had to take a constructive discharge and also no control over the sheriff's office and then she went to the state police so ben is not part of the st bernard parish government and we just wanted to clear that up now a brief history and i'll try to be brief here two thousand causes of action against eleven defendants and in december of two thousand and seventeen judge vance who had the case at the time on the eastern district dismissed all claims against all defendants except miss title seven claims one for retaliation and one for a hostile work environment and always kept the parish government as a defendant now i would like imette on in august of this twelve thousand and nineteen let's now talk about mistakes as retaliates and clay she seems to argue that there were two instances of retaliation one was when she reported alleged illegal gambling and the schaefer was suspended was not because she reported the gambling but because she lied about it she does a valid having gone into the female office and surreptitiously taken photographs of a believe it was a dry football if i can answer that the person who was running the pool was a guy named on bush's watch and the schaefer couldn't stand on bush he was a political person in the parish who helped write her husband's campaign i made it chains and hooks from the ceiling of their bedroom but anyway that was the situation with the gambling event and miss schaefer finally was if you will busted about it when there was surveillance video showing her taking the pictures that she denied taking our rights that she suspended and that whole situation really is of no moment because ms schaefer never appealed judge vance is ruling saying the game would not protect police not the parish government she shows up at work the next day she same leaving the building cold in hands and smiling with her then husband what's important here is to do the title seven analysis that mr shafer was engaged and protected activity which he would be reporting a rape and that adverse employment actually resulted from her report and there is a temple connection between the adverse employment action and her case basically says four months is too long they sided with approval that another case if you use the door when stephen says even three months maybe two on so three or four months is too to receive family so it's most disingenuous to say that mrs schaefer was not employed until she failed to return to work five months in almost a week following the report of discriminatory reason for her adverse employment action it's up to the schaefer under the u s supreme court's decision of nascar to show better proffered reason was nothing if that's false it lacks credibility but eight decided to ehlers the burlington industries case along with erica vs city of boca raton and both of those cases set really was groundbreaking law when it came out concerning hostile work environment and under those two supreme court cases the parish of st bernard is entitled to a sort of an affirmative defense that they hair policy in place to prevent unlawful sexual harassment or sexual discrimination and under that policy miss schaefer headed duty to report the sexual harassment and here not only did miss schaefer not report the harassment her own counsel with all due respect can't even point to this court what the actual harassment is or was it at the time that she should have reported it and there is say a person of the opposite sex and typically it was a male allegedly harassing a female employee say oh you look pretty today you want to go have dinner at who i cal you look that's typically the type of behavior you with him she chose to be married to the parish president and she chose to have for lack of a better word or somewhat crazy sex life with him in the privacy of their own home and the fact that she says that a and he gave a very impassioned deposition testimony that reside in our brief and we also have record citations to his testimony was most disturbed by the fact that michelle pfeiffer in front of two witnesses said i do have a question how can it are you familiar with any cases that have actionable claim of hostile environment where an employee goes on paid leave one we all  for the work you're doing you're my understanding of a constructive discharge in these parts of it and if that's the harassment situation you feel that you're unable to return some work because of the situation the hostile work environment she think of circumstances surrounding it and her testimony support all right but what do you say about the cause so connection weston which is to say sorry the young but for causation because terminations an app and five or six months after the alleged retaliation number one number two she refused to come back to what and and exactly what was the the retaliate and was that she was forced to withdraw the complaint she had made about a for the day the core will stand in recess until nine o'clock tomorrow morning