The Boston Water and Sewer Commission’s former human resources director Marie Theodat has filed an employment discrimination lawsuit alleging that a number of people, including two ex-city councilors and the Herald, conspired against her to get her fired from her $202,873 job.
Theodat filed a lawsuit against the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, its executive director along with several current and former employees; two former city councilors; Mayor Michelle Wu and her labor advisor; the Boston Herald, its executive editor and a reporter, in Suffolk Superior Court on Sept. 30.
The lawsuit was submitted by Theodat’s attorney, Lana Sullivan, with a long litany of grievances Theodat claims she suffered during her employment with the Commission. One of the 14 counts is for “civil conspiracy” against former Boston City Councilors Michael Flaherty and Ricardo Arroyo, the Commission’s then-director of facilities and security Sean Canty, and the Herald defendants.
“Defendants acted in various ways so as to bring about the illegal discharge of Theodat and attempted to hide the true motivations for their actions through the advancement of malicious, false, defamatory allegations designed to injure Theodat and destroy her career, her reputation, her family and her personal life,” the 216-page lawsuit states.
Theodat, who was paid a $202,873 annual salary with the Water and Sewer Commission — after a 61% pay hike and promotion since 2019 — was fired on April 18 after having been on paid administrative leave since Dec. 2 of last year, per the Commission.
Theodat, 57, is embroiled in several civil lawsuits that include fraud allegations and was the subject of three internal investigations commissioned by her ex-employer, which the Commission says were based on “allegations of misconduct.”
Theodat alleges in her complaint that the civil action against her — which includes allegations that she worked with relatives to swindle her elderly, dementia-ridden uncle out of his $1.1 million Dorchester home, per an August 2024 Suffolk Superior Court lawsuit filed by Arroyo — is “frivolous,” and that the internal investigations were “bogus.”
Theodat alleges that Arroyo defamed her with false claims in the lawsuit, and that the Herald did so as well by reporting on the matter. A final pre-trial conference deadline for the case is set for Dec. 15.
Arroyo, when reached by the Herald last Wednesday, said he was unaware of Theodat’s lawsuit.
Theodat’s lawsuit lists the Boston Herald, its executive editor Joe Dwinell, this reporter, and Media News Group, which owns the Herald, as defendants.
“Ms. Theodat has filed a lawsuit which is so frivolous in so many obvious respects that we believe sanctions are appropriate,” Jeffrey Robbins, an attorney for the Herald, said in a statement. “She has identified not a single thing that the Herald published that was false, because everything the Herald published was demonstrably true.
“Given what transpired in the court proceeding about which the Herald reported accurately, it is difficult to understand why Ms. Theodat wants to call attention to this matter. In any event, we expect her lawsuit will be dismissed,” Robbins added.
The Herald’s reporting was based on publicly available Suffolk Superior Court documents and public records and statements from the Boston Water and Sewer Commission.
The Herald also reported on another Suffolk Superior Court case that had been pending against Theodat, alleging that she stiffed a woman on a $75,000 mortgage loan.
A jury last November ruled in favor of the woman who filed suit in 2020 against Theodat, after a nearly weeklong trial, and ordered her to pay $72,000 to the plaintiff. Theodat has appealed the ruling.
Theodat was placed on administrative leave and investigated after the verdict, per the lawsuit, which quotes a communication from Peter Hunt, a defendant and the Commission’s chief operating officer, who said it “reflects behavior that is inconsistent with the Commission’s values.”
Theodat, a black Haitian woman, alleges that she had “long been targeted” and “had her work devalued because of her race, color, national origin, and sex, and because she had consistently tried to protect employees — and herself — from a racist, sexist, and toxic workplace culture at the Commission,” the lawsuit states.
Theodat alleges she was targeted by the Commission’s legal department, and that the “toxic” work environment worsened when Flaherty was hired as deputy general counsel of the Commission. She claims she was targeted by Flaherty and other Commission employees who sought to undermine and get her fired, the lawsuit states.
Theodat alleges, without evidence, that Flaherty, Canty and others were leaking information to the Herald, resulting in what she erroneously describes as “false and defamatory articles” that she believes led, in part, to the mayor’s decision to terminate her, per the lawsuit.
The lawsuit cites a communication from Theodat’s counsel to city and commission officials, which states Mayor Wu and her senior labor adviser, Lou Mandarini, directed Henry Vitale, the Commission’s executive director, to fire Theodat in an April 15 phone call.
The message from Wu, per the communication, was that “because there had been undue scrutiny in the papers” regarding the mayor, Commission and Theodat and her personal civil matters, Vitale “either needed to fire Ms. Theodat so as to ‘stop the stories’ or Mr. Vitale himself would be terminated.”
Mayor Wu’s office and the Boston Water and Sewer Commission did not respond to a request for comment.
Flaherty was fired by the Commission last January due to what the quasi-public agency said was a “breakdown in the working relationship” between Flaherty and Vitale. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Theodat claims that Canty was surveilling her movements on Commission cameras, and “exhibited hostile and aggressive behavior toward her.” Canty was fired by the Commission, the lawsuit states.
Edward O’Sullivan, an attorney for Canty, said, “On the Theodat versus the world in state court” his client “denies all allegations.”
“These allegations against him are baseless and without merit,” O’Sullivan told the Herald. “Mr. Canty is reviewing his options now and may file counterclaims against Ms. Theodat in the near future.”
