Former New Smyrna Beach fire lieutenant sues city for sex discrimination ― again

More than a decade after successfully suing the city of New Smyrna Beach for sexual discrimination, a female fire department lieutenant has filed a new lawsuit alleging continued discrimination and wrongful termination from her job.

Former New Smyrna Beach Fire Lt. Melissa Smith successfully sued the city for discrimination and got her job back at the fire department in 2013, but says she faced continued discrimination and retaliation after rejoining the department that led to her termination.

"This is a 'won’t-they-ever-learn action' for sex discrimination and retaliation brought by an unjustly terminated female fire lieutenant that is mirror-image-similar to the federal sex-discrimination and retaliation suit" (from 2013), the lawsuit reads.

The first lawsuit

In February 2013, a federal jury awarded Smith $444,000 in back wages and damages for emotional distress after finding that department leaders sexually harassed her, retaliated against her and fired her when she spoke out. The court also awarded her about $350,000 for attorney’s fees, court costs and litigation expenses.

A federal judge ordered the fire department to rehire her as a firefighter-paramedic. Smith rejoined the department in 2013 and was promoted to lieutenant in 2015. But she was terminated again in 2023.

Smith, 45, said in an interview with the News-Journal that what she faced in New Smyrna Beach has caused her financial setbacks, left her unable to reach her career goals and negatively impacted her physically and mentally.

"I can't move on with my life," she said.

Department, city decline comment

New Smyrna Beach Fire Chief Shawn VanDemark declined to comment on the allegations.

"I'm actually not authorized to make any comment at all because it's an open case right now," he said.

VanDemark said the department has 56 employees, including several in administration, and seven female firefighters. One of those women is a division chief.

City Manager Khalid Resheidat declined to comment because it's a personnel matter and the subject of a lawsuit.

But the city provided VanDemark's notice of termination to Smith in response to a records request.

The notice, dated Jan. 11, 2023, says that she violated policies by taking an unapproved absence from work and making false statements during an investigation. The letter also says she violated a policy related to "making or authorizing false claims or misrepresentations in an attempt to obtain any benefit from the city."

Smith did not comment on the termination letter at the advice of her attorney William Amlong.

Wants job back

Smith filed the new lawsuit on Feb. 14 of this year in the U.S. District Court in Orlando through attorneys with The Amlong Firm of Fort Lauderdale.

She is again seeking to have her job reinstated with back pay and benefits, damages for lost pay and emotional distress, litigation expenses and attorney's fees. She also wants anti-discrimination and harassment laws ― "seriously this time" ― to be enforced at the department.

Smith and Amlong spoke to the News-Journal in a phone interview.

"If I were going to write a movie about sexual harassment, I would not have this stuff in there because it's just so unbelievable," Amlong said.

The lawsuit outlines allegations against leaders and rank-and-file officials. They include male employees refusing to take orders from her or hindering her work and officials "denying or otherwise restricting Lt. Smith’s access to or payment for medical treatment or reimbursement."

The lawsuit includes information about conversations Smith said she had with VanDemark. The conversations focused on her leadership roles. The lawsuit alleges that VanDemark told her that "male firefighters saw her as a wife, sister, mom or girlfriend."

VanDemark also told her that "The male firefighters come to work to get away from women, but are then being told what to do by a woman," the lawsuit says. She also alleges that he told her that she "needed to be sweeter and allow the male firefighters to feel some sort of control — regardless of rank."

Atmosphere of intolerance?

The lawsuit says employees weren't disciplined for their actions against her and that "open exhibition of intolerance to this female firefighter flowered as if it were mold infesting a damp, untended kitchen."

In January 2016, VanDemark and another official removed her name from an active shooter training announcement in 2016 "to prevent the city fire department's male firefighters from boycotting the training because Lt. Smith was giving it, and preventing her from leading the training course ― even though she was Volusia County's lead trainer for seven other cities."

The issues Smith faced at the department included a search of her personal belongings and equipment going missing, according to the lawsuit.

In 2019 a fire department official overheard two employees talking about how "a large, critical piece of firefighting equipment had been taken off her truck." But they didn't tell Smith about it, according to the lawsuit.

The equipment brings water into the truck, and she verified it was on her firetruck that morning. But sometime during the day it went missing.

"We have two minutes of water. After two minutes, we're out of water, and we would have had no way to get any more water into that truck," she said. "And so someone or something would have been destroyed and lost. And all they thought was 'how funny' and wanted me to appear that I, in fact, couldn't be an officer or look at what a bad officer I was."

Windshield smashed

On the same day, the windshield of her non-work vehicle was smashed, she said.

In another incident, Smith's tags were taken from her helmet and locker. The tags are used to track firefighters during fires and other incidents.

She also alleged that one employee ― who according to VanDemark is no longer with the department ― searched her purse and other belongings and threatened to "make things even tougher" if she didn't erase what she wrote about him in a notebook that he found.

Smith said the department did minimal anti-discrimination training in response to a court order as part of her first lawsuit.

The lawsuit says she has suffered hypertension, chest pains, post-traumatic stress disorder and other impacts from her experiences.

Smith said she was concerned with the first lawsuit about going public, and she still has concerns about coming forward. She said she loves the job and doesn't want firefighters in general to get a bad reputation.

"Even though I was right, it still looks bad because I'm the girl that ― there's shame always placed on women, and it's awful. But you know something has to change," she said.

The lawsuit quotes a charge of discrimination that Smith filed with federal authorities:

"Ever since I returned to work after successfully suing the City for sex discrimination . . . I have been subject to harassment by both superiors and subordinates, undermining of my authority since I was promoted to lieutenant, interference with my performance as a fire rescue lieutenant by officials outside the fire-rescue department, unfounded criticism of my job performance, including demonstrably false allegations, and, finally, termination.

"The motivation for this behavior is my being a woman in a traditionally male profession and lingering anger over my having previously cost the City $750,000 for allowing its personnel to discriminate against me."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ex-fire lieutenant files lawsuit against New Smyrna Beach