Only a few days after a state audit criticized the Department of Agriculture's handling of a sexual harassment complaint, a St. Louis County jury awarded $337,000 to a former Department of Natural Resources employee who claimed he was a victim of workplace hostility because of his Arab heritage:
Mohamad Alhalabi, who is of Lebanese descent, told the jury in St. Louis County Circuit Court during a two-week trial that his bosses did nothing to alleviate ethnic slurs, including personal attacks in anonymous anti-Muslim fliers.
Alhalabi was the regional director for the DNR from 2000 to 2005 and oversaw a staff of 70 from his offices in Sunset Hills.
In 2003, the St. Louis Chapter of the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers had selected him the outstanding engineer in government, he said in an interview Friday.
But his supervisors demoted him in 2005. They testified at the trial that he had been a poor manager. He got an "unsatisfactory performance rating" for the period of July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2004, one court document showed.
Alhalabi said he took the problem all the way to Gov. Matt Blunt, but was rebuffed at every turn.
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