BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — It was in 2018 we first learned about a lawsuit filed against the California Department of Corrections by Sarah Coogle, a former Tehachapi prison guard who said she was denied reasonable accommodations during her pregnancy. Now, her attorney is sharing that her story was just one of hundreds of women, which is what led him to pursue a class action lawsuit with nearly 300 plaintiffs.
Coogle lost her unborn baby two months after she fell while trying to break up a prison fight in 2017. In 2019, the CDCR settled the suit for $1.7 million.
Coogle's attorney Arnold Peter, however, is continuing to pursue a class action lawsuit against the CDCR on behalf of hundreds of women arguing that during their times as employees and correctional officers, they were denied certain accommodations and lighter duty while pregnant.
Many of the women state that when they entered the field, the policy did provide accommodations, and some even had children during their career. But something changed in 2015, however no one could explain to them why the change to policy was made.
“When the policy was implemented back in 2015, we have originally challenged it with Sarah Coogle’s case, and like I said we began to get phone calls from individuals who’s situations were not so severe," Peter said. “Each of those individuals situations were such that it didn’t make sense to file separate lawsuits, it only made sense to file a class action lawsuit. So the policy could be addressed statewide as to every single pregnant correctional officer and then all employees.”
Legislators began to get involved. Former Assemblymember Rudy Salas authored Assembly Bill 1906 — the Workplace Safety Bill for Pregnant Correctional Officers — which advanced through committees in 2020 but was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom after the CDCR announced it would revert to its pre-2015 policy.
“Even though now we’ve reverted back to the old policy, CDCR in many cases is sorta slow walking reasonable accommodation requests," Peter said. "So our next step is to ask Gov. Newsom to step in and get some resolution.”
Along with a the on-going class action lawsuits, eight of the plaintiffs have attached their names to letters to the governor's office as well to Attorney General Rob Bonta.
“We are also asking that the CDCR be monitored and provide a report to Govoner Newsom’s office until the policy has been fully implemented, which we don’t think that it has," Peter said.
23ABC reached out to the CDCR for comment but they said they could not comment on the current pending litigation. They currently have hearing scheduled this month in Los Angeles for the class action lawsuit as well as a lawsuit filed by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, a department that also falls under Governor Newsom’s purview.
