SF lady fired for reporting lacking cranium will get payout from metropolis

San Francisco pays $750,000 to settle a weird lawsuit introduced by a former worker on the metropolis health worker’s workplace who claimed she was fired for elevating issues that her boss might have tossed out a human cranium.

Metropolis supervisors unanimously authorised the payout Tuesday, resolving a grievance filed by former post-mortem technician Sonia Kominek-Adachi, who alleged she confronted retaliation after reporting the disappearance of the cranium throughout an inside stock, based on the San Francisco Chronicle.

Kominek-Adachi stated she discovered concerning the lacking cranium in 2023 whereas cataloging physique components maintained by the Workplace of the Chief Medical Examiner — the place the stays had been required to be saved till the identification of the deceased may very well be confirmed, the Chronicle reported.

Her lawsuit alleged that the workplace’s govt director David Serrano Sewell might have “inexplicably” discarded the cranium whereas speeding to tidy the workspace forward of an inspection, based on the San Francisco Commonplace.

Information cited by the Commonplace present the cranium belonged to an unidentified man whose physique was discovered close to a homeless encampment at Lake Merced in 2014. The cranium had been encased in a clay facial reconstruction that would have aided in figuring out the stays, the lawsuit acknowledged.

“The cranium was a vital component” in figuring out the person, the grievance stated, per the Commonplace.

Kominek-Adachi alleged that after she raised issues concerning the lacking stays, her boss failed to research and as a substitute sought to push her out of the workplace.

She claimed she was subjected to a polygraph request, background scrutiny {and professional} retaliation that finally resulted in her termination from a brief at-will position in 2023, famous the Commonplace.

Metropolis officers disputed the declare that the cranium was discarded.

A spokesperson for the Metropolis Lawyer’s Workplace stated the stays by no means left the health worker’s workplace however acknowledged the settlement was acceptable given the price and threat of extended litigation, based on the Chronicle.

Kominek-Adachi additionally alleged that Sewell discriminated in opposition to girls within the office, handed over feminine employees for promotion and made demeaning remarks, the Chronicle reported.

Her legal professional, James Urbanic, stated she was relieved to resolve the dispute and transfer ahead after the ordeal. However in a earlier assertion to the Commonplace, he Urbanic that “her termination is a horrible black mark on her skill to proceed to work in her discipline.”

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