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Attorneys for the Blair County Prison have filed a petition with the federal court in Johnstown asserting that it should not be included as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a former employee of the Harrisburg-based firm that provides medical care to its inmates.
The former employee, Chrissy Friday of Tyrone, served as a licensed practical nurse at the county facility for several months in late 2022 and early 2023.
She eventually left her position complaining that her supervisor "nitpicked and micromanaged" her work.
Friday, 43, charged in a federal civil lawsuit that she was discriminated against due to her age and that her much younger supervisor criticized her work, commenting she wasn't doing her job fast enough to keep up with the prison's "sink or swim" environment, and that she wasn't "cut out for the work" as a licensed practical nurse.
She noticed employees bringing contraband into the prison and reported these activities to management of the company that hired her to work in the prison, PrimeCare Medical Inc.
PrimeCare for years has been the health care provider at the prison, a facility with a daily inmate population of more than 300.
Friday resigned her position in January 2023 and, through Philadelphia attorneys David M. Koller and Jordan D. Santo, filed a civil rights petition in the U.S. District Court Johnstown in which she charged the toxic work environment she experienced at the prison violated the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and the Pennsylvania Whistleblower law.
The Blair County Prison and PrimeCare Medical were named as defendants in the lawsuit.
On Tuesday, Pittsburgh attorney Anthony Andsrisano, representing the prison, asked that the county be dismissed as a defendant.
"Ms. Friday alleges in her complaint that she was hired as an LPN by PrimeCare Medical. ... Because she has not alleged Blair County was her employer and, in fact, Blair County never has been her employer," the county contended it should not be a defendant in the case.
The county petition claimed that Friday has failed to show the prison violated federal and state laws, as cited in the Friday lawsuit.
The county petition also claims the ADEA claim is invalid due to governmental immunity protections under the Eleventh Amendment.
The immunity claim was also cited as a defense to any claims under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and the Whistleblower Act.
PrimeCare in a petition filed late last year also asked it be dropped as a defendant.
In its answer to the lawsuit, PrimeCare denied the accusation that Friday was the victim of a hostile work environment and that it refused to address Friday's complaints, although the company did admit that Friday did reach out to management through texts and emails.
The decision to allow the case to move forward will be up to District Judge Stephanie L. Haines.
Haines has set a Feb. 28 deadline for Friday's attorneys to file a response, if any, to the county's motion to dismiss.