[StBernard] St. Bernard President Dave Peralta's wife filed job discrimination complaint against him

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard President Dave Peralta's wife filed job discrimination complaint
against him
Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on February 28, 2014 at 7:18 PM, updated February 28, 2014 at 10:16 PM

St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta's wife, Sharon Peralta, filed a
federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission discrimination charge
against him in December, a few weeks after she finally left her job in
parish government and two months following her accusation that he raped her.

The discrimination complaint said Dave Peralta harassed her at work, and
states that he  suspended her from her paralegal position Dec. 5. The parish
government says Sharon Peralta was not suspended, but took sick leave a day
after some parish employees say she told them she needed a gun. That made at
least one employee feel threatened, according to a parish Sheriff's Office
report that the parish attorney filed in December. Sharon Peralta denies
ever having mentioned a gun.

The complaint and the police records of the parish's allegations, which are
being made public for the first time, mark the latest wrinkle in the
Peraltas' public dispute. Sharon Peralta accused Dave Peralta of raping her
Oct. 27. The day after that she signed an affidavit stating that she did not
wish to see him prosecuted "for any of the offenses arising from the
incident." 

She continued living with him until Dec. 12. Since then, she has said that
she stayed with him because she was scared, both about her own personal
safety and the status of her parish job. She also restated her accusation
that Dave Peralta raped her, and the state Attorney's General's Office has
been reviewing that case since early January. And since late December, the
pair also has been embroiled in a contentious divorce, in which both spouses
successfully have obtained restraining orders against one another.

In her discrimination charge against Dave Peralta, Sharon Peralta wrote that
while she "was in the process of getting a separation" from him, the parish
president repeatedly sexually harassed her at work. She said he requested
"sexual favors from me," and told her "that I was being suspended as
punishment for what I did (refusing to acquiesce to his sexual requests and
for filing criminal charges against him for sexual assault)."

Dave Peralta said Friday that Sharon Peralta's EEOC complaint was
fabricated.

"It is as absurd as all the other claims that she has made since the
beginning and continues to make at this time," he said. "I could not have
harassed her because I was not allowed to have any supervisory role over
her. I could not have suspended Sharon. I could not have fired Sharon."

Her EEOC complaint came after her last day in parish government and the same
day that Dave Peralta filed for divorce from her. 

A few days later, Parish Attorney William McGoey filed a report with the St.
Bernard Sheriff's Office. That report described Sharon Peralta's last day at
work Dec. 4, citing testimony from two parish employees who said she had
mentioned the need to get a gun.

One of the employees, Dave Peralta's assistant, Lenor Duplessis, wrote in a
statement partially quoted in that Sheriff's Office report that on Dec. 4
Sharon Peralta said, "I need a gun, sometimes I don't feel like living."

When Duplessis asked Sharon Peralta why she was feeling down that day, she
said, "I'm tired of the way I'm treated at home. I'm tired of the set of
rules for Dave and his friends and the set of rules for the rest of us,"
according to Duplessis' full statement, which recently was obtained by
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.

Another of Dave Peralta's assistants, Kim Owens, wrote that Sharon Peralta
had said "she is tired of dealing with people around here and she is so
tired of this place and don't know how much more she can take." Then Sharon
Peralta said she needed a gun, Owens' statement said.

Owens also wrote that Sharon Peralta later accused her of having an affair
with her husband, which Owens told her was untrue.

In a recent interview Duplessis said she wrote her statement about Sharon
Peralta's actions Dec. 4 at the request of Dave Peralta and McGoey. But
Duplessis said that she was unaware McGoey used her statement in a report
filed with the Sheriff's Office. She said she only learned of the report
made to police when a reporter recently asked her about it.

Duplessis said she wasn't threatened by the mention of a gun, saying that
Sharon Peralta "was just venting." Duplessis said that at the end of the day
on Dec. 4, she saw Sharon Peralta leave Dave Peralta's office in tears.

Owens, in a recent interview, said of Sharon Peralta's actions, "You could
have taken it as a threat, the state of mind she was in at the time."

Sharon Peralta and her attorney Vernon Thomas wrote, "As to Mrs. Peralta's
mention that 'She needed a gun,' Sharon Peralta does not own a gun, has
never owned a gun, and has never handled a gun. She did not mention any gun
to" Duplessis or Owens.

The Sheriff's Office forwarded the case to the Attorney General's Office.
Laura Gerdes Colligan, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Buddy Caldwell,
said Friday that the office is evaluating that report, as it still is
evaluating the rape complaint, "to determine the appropriate legal action."

Asked recently why his administration filed a police report on the Dec. 4
actions of his wife, Dave Peralta said: "With the vast amount of work place
violence that happens now a days, you have to take a mention of a gun
seriously."

Sharon Peralta sent an email message to McGoey on Dec. 11, writing that Dave
Peralta "informed me today that the punishment he gave me a choice of 1.)
Leave of absence or 2.) Being fired, of which I chose leave of absence." She
left her husband's home the next day.

Soon after Dave Peralta took over the top parish post in January 2012, and
after he and Sharon Peralta married a few months later, the Louisiana Board
of Ethics determined that she could continue her employment with parish
government. But, the board ruled that the Code of Governmental Ethics
prohibited him "from participating in any transactions in which his spouse
may have a substantial economic interest."

The relationship between Sharon Peralta and the Peralta administration had
been combative even before the rape accusation and her December suspension.

Sharon Peralta was reprimanded and suspended in September after taking
photos of employees' fantasy football draft board and another betting board
posted in the FEMA-funded parish recovery office, records show. She
contested that suspension for the next month and continued threatening to
tell FEMA about the employees actions.

Bourgeois earlier this month said, "Although it was poor judgment to put
these lunch bets on an office dry erase board, there is nothing illegal
about friendly lunch bets between two people."

The betting including employees wagering Ruth's Chris Steakhouse dinners on
who would enter the 2015 parish president's election, and who would make it
through the primary.

Dave Peralta said earlier this month that when he learned of the boards, he
asked employees to take them down.