Courthouse News Service
PHOENIX — A Fire Department official who reprimanded workers for graffiti of “a penis and testicles” at a fire station claims he suffered retaliation via interoffice mail: “two small pieces of pasta,” one shaped like a penis and one like a vagina, with his name on the vagina.
Frank Cheatham sued Phoenix in Federal Court. He seeks a jury trial. Cheatham, a deputy chief shift commander with 24 years on the job, claims he “admonished” supervisors for “specifically, two depictions of a penis and testicles-openly displayed in the workplace at Fire Station 1.” This was in November 2009.
Cheatham says the graffiti created a sexually hostile workplace and he “admonished the supervisors at Fire Station 1 that such drawings were inappropriate and would not be tolerated in the future.”
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