JEFFERSON CITY — A 20-year veteran of the Missouri attorney general’s office accused her employer of illegal age discrimination and retaliation in a lawsuit filed last month.
Diane Peters, an assistant attorney general who began working for the office in 2003, said that in July, she was passed over for a raise despite every other assistant attorney general in the litigation section receiving one.
Peters, who in the lawsuit said she was a 57-year-old white female based in Kansas City, said her supervisor told her “that some of the raises were at the discretion of the new Attorney General, but that Plaintiff (Peters) had hit her ceiling for pay.â€
The lawsuit continued that the new attorney general — Andrew Bailey, sworn in in January — “gave three Assistant Attorney Generals raises and all three were white men, under the age of 40.â€
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Peters said her coworkers were paid more than her “despite only having been there for a few years.â€
Peters also said she applied to be the new chief of the Employment Law Section in September, but alleged others told her that “the position was promised to a white male over the age of 40 who started working for the office sometime around 2015, but had left three years ago.â€
The alleged incidents occurred after Peters reported in November 2022 that the deputy chief of litigation was “committing fraud on the court†by filing pleadings under other attorneys’ names without their knowledge or permission.
She said she faced “continued harassment and retaliation†from supervisors after Peters reported the deputy, listing the raises for her co-workers and that she hadn’t received and the non-promotion among evidence.
In response to the lawsuit, Madeline Sieren, spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, said in a statement that “we look forward to disproving these baseless allegations in court.â€
The case, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, was assigned to Judge Justine Del Muro. A case management conference has been scheduled for Feb. 23.
Among examples of retaliation and harassment cited, Peters said that in February, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri notified her that she had been “suspended for failure to pay my annual dues, something the Attorney General’s Office paid.â€
She said she was the only assistant attorney general “whose annual dues were not paid†in January.
Peters said the attorney general’s office “continued to retaliate†against her after she reported in April that an assistant attorney general had committed fraud on the federal court in Springfield when she told the court a week before a trial that her boyfriend had died.
“Upon good faith and belief, there was no boyfriend,†Peters said, adding the attorney “had intentionally lied to the court to get out of a trial.â€
The lawsuit said Peters’ age “directly contributed to and caused†the attorney general’s office decisions to harass, discriminate against and/or treat her differently than coworkers.
In addition to age discrimination and illegal retaliation, Peters also alleged a hostile work environment in violation of the Missouri Human Rights Act.