A former employee of a West Virginia State University agency who spearheaded a design competition to restore the iconic Top-O-Rock home in Charleston claims in a lawsuit she was fired over a post she made on her personal Facebook page.
Sarah Halstead, who worked as an economic development specialist for WVSU’s Research and Development Corporation, filed a lawsuit last week in Kanawha Circuit Court against the school, its corporation and school officials.
Halstead was behind a design competition to restore the home built by architect Henry Elden in 1968. The contest was announced last March after the home was found in disrepair, having been vandalized in 2014.
In early May, Top-O-Rock was again vandalized, and footage of the alleged vandals was caught on surveillance cameras. In an effort to identify the trespassers, Halstead posted still photographs of them on her Facebook page on May 14, 2015, according to her lawsuit.
About five days after posting the photographs, Halstead was fired, the lawsuit states. A memo from Orlando McMeans, executive director of WVSU’s Research and Development Corporation, to Halstead said she was fired for “while representing the WVSU Extension Service, publicly making criminal accusations against minors which were not authorized by the University or the [school’s research and development corporation] and which do not represent the position of the University or the Corporation.”
Along with McMeans, also named as defendants in the lawsuit are Ami Smith, associate dean of the WVSU Extension Office; Kimberly Osborne, vice president of university relations; and WVSU President Brian Hemphill.
The memo stated Halstead failed to comply with previous direction “to have press engagement approved through WVSU Office of University Relations and Operations.”
Halstead potentially created legal or liability issue for the school, according to the memo, the lawsuit states.
Halstead’s lawsuit claims she was wrongly terminated and retaliated against for exercising her First Amendment right to free speech. She is represented by Charleston attorney Harry Bell.
Charleston attorney Tom Kleeh, who represents the Research and Development Corporation, said Monday that he hadn’t yet seen a copy of the complaint.
“We stand by the employment decision that was made,” said Kleeh. “To the extent that the university and university employees, including Kimberly Osborne and President Hemphill were named, we don’t think that was appropriate, as Ms. Halstead never worked for the university.”
Kleeh said that the research and development office is separate from the school.
“It’s a completely separate private sector entity from the university — separate employees, separate decision makers, particularly as it pertains to Ms. Halstead,” Kleeh said.
Kleeh also said that a notice, which is required to be provided before a lawsuit is filed against a state agency, was never given. Halstead’s complaint says that notice was sent to defendants June 9.
WVSU pulled out of the design competition around the time of the vandalism. At the time, Halstead said only that she was no longer with the school and, instead, West Virginia GreenWorks, a nonprofit organization that Halstead heads, decided it would lead the preservation effort and design competition. Demolition abruptly began on the house in September.
Halstead was hired as an interim Extension specialist by WVSU in 2012. Two years later, the school offered her the permanent position, which she accepted, her lawsuit states. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723, or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.