Employee Fired for Porn E-mails Claims Disability Discrimination

CNET News reported that the judge agreed with Martin Sheville that the company ignored a “locker room atmosphere” within its load-planning department, but said there was no evidence Sheville was fired because of his disability. The judge pointed out that a supervisor who also had multiple sclerosis remained an employee.

After America West’s director of operations was made aware of employee misuse of the company’s Internet and e-mail systems, he ordered an investigation. A number of racy and graphic e-mails were found to have been sent by Sheville to various coworkers, but one in particular, entitled “Wicked Weasel,” showed scantily clad women and full-frontal nudity.

After reviewing the findings of the investigation, America West fired Sheville and the employee who sent him the “Wicked Weasel” e-mail. Five other employees were disciplined, but the company said they were not fired because their e-mails did not contain frontal nudity, according to CNET.

Sheville filed suit against his employer under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), pointing out that other workers sent the same e-mails during work hours. Another worker even testified that sending, receiving, and viewing naked women on America West’s computers during work hours was common.

America West’s managers responded that “after reviewing the frontal nudity depicted in the (Wicked Weasel e-mail) and comparing them to the e-mails sent by other members of the department, none of which contained frontal nudity and most of which contained no nudity at all, (we) made the determination to terminate (the Wicked Weasel offenders) and to provide progressive counseling to the other affected members of the department,” CNET reported.

The court decided there was no direct evidence to support Sheville’s claim that he was terminated due to his multiple sclerosis.