Photo by Jon Anderson
The Vestavia Hills City Council on Monday is slated to consider whether to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a former Vestavia Hills police officer last year.
The female officer claimed that a male colleague sexually assaulted her at a coworker’s social gathering in Hoover in May 2024 by groping her and forcibly touching her in an intimate area. She filed a sexual assault report with the Hoover Police Department and reported the incident to leaders in her department and claims she was subjected to harassment and retaliation because of her criminal complaint and internal complaints in the Vestavia Hills Police Department.
The female officer claims in her lawsuit that several Vestavia Hills officers spread false, derogatory rumors that she was promiscuous and had been sexually involved with a superior when she worked for another law enforcement agency. The officers also spread false rumors that she had to have a medical procedure because of scarring and physical abrasions related to certain sex acts, the lawsuit claims. One colleague shared her criminal complaint with others in the department, the suit claims.
After an internal investigation, the officer whom she claims assaulted her was suspended for 30 days and demoted from corporal to a patrol officer, according to the lawsuit. The female officer was placed on inactive administrative status while her allegations were investigated and told in July 2024 that she was being retroactively docked 190 hours of personal leave time for the time she spent off duty.
The female officer claims that no action was taken about the false gossip being disseminated about her sex life and that she was denied reassignment to another unit that she had requested because of what she deemed to be a hostile work environment. She resigned from the department the day after being denied the transfer in October 2024.
Subsequently, the female officer claims that senior officials of the Vestavia Hills Police Department tried to damage her prospects of gaining employment with other agencies by providing those agencies with information about her reporting a sexual assault.
The city of Vestavia Hills, in its answer to the officer’s federal lawsuit, denies engaging in any unlawful employment practices and said it lacked sufficient information to characterize the interactions between the officer and the officer whom she accused as being a sexual assault.
The female officer filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in June 2025 and was notified by the EEOC she had a right to file a lawsuit, so she filed that lawsuit in September. The parties entered mediation and have reached a tentative agreement to settle outside of court, with the city paying the female officer $47,500 plus mediation costs. Attorneys for the city are recommending the settlement, saying continuing the legal case further would be more expensive and noting that juries can be unpredictable.
In other business Monday, the Vestavia Hills City Council also plans to consider an amendment to a development agreement with the developer of The Shoppes at City Hall shopping center that allows the shopping center to have three restaurants instead of two, as spelled out in the initial agreement.
SWNA-Vestavia, the current owner of the shopping center, wants to redevelop the former Metro Diner space to accommodate a taco restaurant and Thai restaurant, City Manager Jeff Downes said in a memo to the City Council. Because there already is another restaurant in The Shoppes at City Hall — Pappas’ Grill, an amendment to the development agreement is being requested.
The City Council’s action meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Monday, but the council also has a work session scheduled at 4:30 p.m., with plans to discuss proposed improvements for the baseball and softball fields at Liberty Park.
