NORTHAMPTON — A former drug court clinician has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Thomas H. Estes, the former first justice at Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown, of forcing sexual acts on her in the judge’s chambers.
Boston attorneys representing Tammy Cagle filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Springfield. Cagle, who was a specialty court clinician employed by Behavioral Health Network in Springfield, now lives in Glennville, Georgia.
According to the lawsuit, while Cagle was working in the courts between July 18, 2016, and March 17, 2017, she faced sex discrimination and a hostile work environment caused by Estes’ behavior, including repeated incidents in which she was forced to perform oral sex.
Both Estes, of Northampton, and Behavioral Health Network are named in the lawsuit, which seeks a trial by jury and compensatory and punitive damages related to the four complaints under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Northampton attorney David Hoose, of Sasson Turnbull Ryan & Hoose, who is representing Estes, said in a statement emailed to the Gazette that Estes looks forward to defending himself against the allegations in Cagle’s complaint.
“The evidence in his defense will show that he had nothing to do with Ms. Cagle’s removal from the drug court, and that she was removed by her employer due to multiple complaints about her ability to work with other people,” Hoose said.
“The evidence will also show that Ms. Cagle initiated and aggressively pursued a sexual relationship with Judge Estes, even after she moved 1,500 miles away.”
A message left for a senior vice president at Behavioral Health Network was not immediately returned.
Cagle, who was assigned to assist Estes in implementing a drug court in Pittsfield, previously filed a Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination complaint that led to Estes leaving the bench and being placed on “administrative assignment” at Holyoke District Court in August.
His status is unchanged and his judicial duties remain suspended, according to a spokeswoman for the Supreme Judicial Court.
The lawsuit, which replaces the withdrawn MCAD complaint, sets forth details of a series of sexual encounters between Estes and Cagle that commenced Nov. 16, 2016, at a hotel in Marlborough, where a conference was taking place. After both had been consuming alcoholic beverages, they engaged in oral sex, according to the lawsuit.
The actions culminated March 17 when, according to the lawsuit, Cagle received a phone call from Juliana Reiss, director of forensics for Behavioral Health Network, informing her that she would be placed on administrative leave and would not be allowed to return to drug court.
“(Reiss) further stated that there had been a complaint filed against (Cagle), but would not elaborate on who had filed the complaint or what the complaint said,” according to the lawsuit.
Cagle was later informed that the reason for this discipline was because of a treatment decision she made to keep a criminal defendant jailed until a treatment bed was available, rather than releasing him back into the community.
After being removed from her job, Cagle was assigned to an outpatient social work position. She resigned and moved to Georgia on April 18, though she contends in the lawsuit that Estes continued to receive sexual favors from her, including at the courthouse on July 3.
The lawsuit, filed by Leonard H. Kesten and Erica L. Brody of the Boston law firm Brody, Hardoon, Perkins & Kesten LLP, lays out in detail, often graphically, what Cagle is alleged to have been subjected to following the first sexual encounter.
A week after the Nov. 16, 2016, incident, according to the lawsuit, she was in the Belchertown courthouse chambers where Estes allegedly promised her that “if she performed oral sex on him now, he would never ask her again” and pledged “to fix the problems she was having with probation.”
Estes then “unbuttoned his pants, pulled them down, and then pulled his boxer shorts down” and forced her to perform oral sex, according to the lawsuit.
Court staff saw them walking together and, the lawsuit states, she “felt degraded and humiliated.”
Later, when he came over to her home, Estes allegedly made sexual advances and “was even more sexually aggressive,” including grabbing her genitalia, the lawsuit states.
Cagle’s lawsuit also states that she tried to end their relationship, conveying “to him she was worried about his relationship with his wife and children.” The suit states he then began acting coldly toward her during drug court staff meetings and during drug court sessions, and she became paranoid that others knew what was happening, and she felt ashamed at how she was being treated.
The lawsuit goes on to note that Estes told Cagle’s clinical supervisor, David DiSessa, that he had received many complaints about her work and that she had “no people skills, which was hard for someone who was a clinician.”
What she discovered when she was transferred from her job is that no written complaints, warnings or disciplinary actions had been made against her, and Estes had even called her a “top-notch clinician.”
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
