Eureka City Manager Dave Tyson won’t be getting off so easy.
A court ruling dismissing Tyson from a major harassment lawsuit against him and the city has been appealed by attorneys for former EPD dispatcher Tawnie Hansen. The appeal was filed Thursday.
Humboldt County Superior Court judge John Feeney dismissed Tyson from personal liability in the case in January, but cleared the way for Hansen’s case to proceed against the city.
The lawsuit is based on an anonymous blog allegedly run from inside the Eureka Police Dept. that peddled salacious gossip about an alleged affair between Hansen and Police Chief Garr Nielsen. Both have denied the rumors.
Hansen alleges that Tyson failed to prevent the workplace harassment by pursuing an over-broad “global investigation” that effectively buried her complaints, and that Tyson aided and abetted the harassment. She is seeking $1.4 million in damages.
An earlier lawsuit was settled when another former dispatcher, DeeDee Wilson, agreed to pay Hansen $10,000 following allegations of libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
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