Supreme Court rules in favor of Bachmeier in harassment, retaliation case

The Montana Supreme Court issued an opinion this week affirming previous decisions and awarding more than $460,000 in damages and legal fees to a Montana State University-Northern dean in a case where Randy Bachmeier alleged he was sexually harassed by a university provost and then retaliated against when he complained about the harassment.

"This case has gone on seven long years," John Heenan, Bachmeier's attorney, said in a statement provided to Havre Daily News. "We are glad that it is finally over. We are glad that Randy has finally been vindicated and justice served. And we are glad that the Montana Supreme Court has affirmed the right of all Montanans to work in an environment free from harassment."

Northern Director of University Relations Jim Potter said this morning the university does not comment on personnel issues.

The opinion of the court was written by Justice Beth Baker and supported previous decisions finding both sexual harassment and retaliation and awarding $80,000 in damages on the harassment and $20,000 on the retaliation and more than $360,000 in in attorney's fees and costs.

Bachmeier had asked for $175,000 for harassment, $75,000 for retaliation and more than $900,000 in attorney's fees and costs.

In a dissenting opinion Justice Laurie McKinnon wrote that sexual harassment had not occurred, but that retaliation for Bachmeier's complaint had.

Bachmeier, dean of extended university at Northern said he asked then-Provost Roslyn Templeton April 30, 2013, during a meeting to please stop touching him the way she was, stroking the hair on his forearm with her fingertips, the court opinion said.

Bachmeier said during a Human Rights Commission hearing she had been touching him and other male employees in the university in similar ways, placing her hand on his knee, rubbing his shoulders and so on, for several years at that time. 

Others at the hearing said she had touched them in similar fashions, and that she did not touch female employees of the university in the same way.

Bachmeier said that the day after he asked Templeton to stop touching him in that fashion, she called him into her office and verbally reprimanded him for submitting a contract for a professor she had stated did not meet the qualifications for the course.

About a week later, Bachmeier instructed his attorney to send a letter to Northern's human resource department alleging Templeton had sexually harassed him. 

The court opinion said then-Chancellor James Limbaugh then instructed Templeton not to touch Bachmeier at all any longer.

Bachmeier filed a discrimination and retaliation complaint with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry on May 30, 2013.

Northern completed its internal investigation into Bachmeier's allegations on July 9, 2013, finding Bachmeier's sexual harassment and retaliation claims unsupported.

Bachmeier said that later, after Templeton left, he applied for the position of provost, as he had in 2007, although the requirements included having been an associate or full professor, a qualification he did not have. The document said he asked that the requirements be adjusted so he could apply, but Limbaugh told him they would not be changed.

The document said now-Chancellor Greg Kegel, then the head of the search committee for the provost position, also asked Limbaugh if that requirement could be changed because it was eliminating candidates the committee believed were otherwise qualified, but Limbaugh denied the request, effectively filtering Bachmeier out of the search.

Bachmeier argued that Templeton's rebuke and Limbaugh's actions on the qualifications for the position were retaliations for his actions on his allegations of sexual harassment.

After the initial Human Rights Commission hearing, the hearing officer found that Bachmeier had not proven sexual harassment but had shown retaliation. He awarded Bachmeier $20,000 for retaliation and ordered Northern to conduct training about laws and regulations on workplace retaliation.

Bachmeier and Northern both appealed, and the full commission found both harassment and retaliation had occurred and remanded the case back to the hearing officer, who then awarded $175,000 for harassment to Bachmeier.

Northern appealed that decision, and the full commission issued its final decision to award $80,000 for the harassment and $20,000 for retaliation.

Bachmeier and Northern both appealed that decision to Montana District Court, and that court overturned the ruling that sexual harassment had occurred but agreed that retaliation had occurred, and awarded Bachmeier $360,072.65 in combined fees and costs.

The Supreme Court's opinion was on an appeal of the district court ruling.