Liar, Liar. . . .

It shouldn't be, but it is funny to me how blatantly people lie. One thing that became clear and I will continually make everyone aware. . .Mr. Flanagan's, the AARP Services CEO, testimony continually changed during this litigation, even on the stand under sworn oath.  He was impeached by my attorney about the reason for my termination.

(Impeaching in this case means that your sworn oath testimony on the stand differs from your sworn testimony during your deposition- basically, your story has changed). 

Mr. Flanagan was under oath both times, but that didn't matter. As we had his documented deposition, he should have stuck with the truth, not change it now that we were at trial and they were trying to make a new story work. Mr. Flanagan stated he fired me because I lied. See, this is the funny part, you are caught lying but keep calling me the liar. My testimony has not changed, not once in 6+ years. Because, I was and continue to tell the truth of what happened to me.

This is the part where Mr. Flanagan gets Impeached during the trial:

I am so happy that at his deposition under oath, he was both overthinking and “riffing" when asked about the reason for my termination.  I mean, it was only my career and your (alleged) discrimination we were discussing, why take it seriously?!? Also, I will remind you, much of the information I shared at my interview was not put into the report by Mr. Easley (the ECO Director who was investigating the two anonymous complaints) and other evidence was excluded in his final report.

ASI was/is a small 200 person organization, I knew Mr. Flanagan. My office was on the same floor, the same wall on the opposite end of the floor. Shouldn't a CEO do a more thorough job of investigating before firing someone? This wasn't a recommendation to put me on a warning, this was ending my career at ASI, a career I worked hard establishing. Eleven years of my life, I worked there longer than he did. Also, why fire me? Why not put me on a warning and have me pay back money you say I owe in order to keep my job like you did with my straight co-workers. For some reason, when there was a gay man involved, Mr. Flanagan always chose the most extreme as is evidenced by my and the other gay man's termination by Mr. Flanagan. Let's review what happened to him now. I am redacting his name to try to protect his identity and not offer more pain to a fellow victim.

During his deposition, Mr. Flanagan denied firing this gay employee, he "couldn't recall" and started the narrative this termination was in process when he showed up.  Mr. Flanagan began as CEO of ASI in December 2014.  This gay employee was terminated in April of 2015.  In their lawsuit (which is publicly available, I downloaded it today), they share part of an email from someone named Volk who worked in HR at AARP that the report came to HR the week before his termination.

I want to stop for a moment and make sure you all understand this situation.  This gay employee did not have a chance to defend themself, they were fired on the spot and there was no investigation.  AARP could not (or maybe would not?) produce an investigation as part of our discovery/lawsuit, so officially and according to them, THERE WAS NO INVESTIGATION!!! This is contrary to what this Volk person stated. See, false statements presented as facts. . .there is a theme!

The termination happened one week after the sexual harassment claim came to HR. So, that would be in April of 2015, this hadn't "transpired earlier had happened before I showed up." It happened while he was CEO and he did make the decision, he was just lying about it before and finally admitted the truth.

Thankfully, my amazing attorney Doug Rosenbloom finally got Mr. Flanagan to admit what we already knew to be true; he was the one who fired this gay employee.  It's right there in black and white!!!! It took 6 years and week two of the trial on the stand for him to admit the truth.  He evaded the question before under oath and was caught.  It should come as no surprise, he also stated he didn’t think it was a mistake.  Think of that?!?

This other gay employee was discriminatorily fired, he sued AARP and they settled out of court because it was proven to be false, but even now in 2024, Mr. Flanagan states it wasn't a mistake. No one at AARP can ever be wrong.

In the lawsuit this gay employee filed, there were allegations about their manager being investigated for sexual harassment. Of course, this employee is a woman- the report came from a man she was basically stalking at work, straight and was not fired. They actually received a promotion to Sr. Director, a title that was removed from ASI when I worked there. This individual was also a very close and dear friend of mine until December 2019. One day, this individual cut me out of their life, no reason given, just cut me off - blocked all social and even my phone number. After I gave my deposition in relation to this lawsuit, their name did come up as someone I had discussed the issues I was having those several months with my employee and then the anonymous complaints. See, in all my testimony I told the truth, 100% even if it might not make some people happy. I stupidly thought that is what everyone would do, we are under oath, right? I was wrong as I have proven multiple times across multiple posts.

The cost of my discriminatory firing has been far reaching. Not only has it financially impacted my husband and I, damaged my career to the point that I don't think it will ever be on the same level as it was, I also lost a lot of very close friends and business contacts. The price I have paid for standing up for myself is deep and something I will be recovering from for years.