SF D.A.'s office employee files suit; claims co-worker used racial slur

A longtime investigative assistant in San Francisco’s District Attorney's Office is suing the D.A., George Gascon and others in the department after claiming a co-worker used a racial slur. 

Twanda Bailey has worked in the DA’s office the past 14 years and says she’s suing because she doesn't want what happened to her to happen to anyone else.

"Hopefully it stops here. It stops here," says Twanda Bailey,

Bailey says she was in the DA’s office one day last year when a mouse ran by, causing to her scream, jump out of her chair and run.

She says she couldn't believe her co-worker then called her the N-word.

“She walks behind me and she says you "n.....s" are so scary. I look at her for a few minutes and stood there. Then I walked out of the office," says Bailey.

But she says that was just the beginning of her ordeal.

According to the lawsuit, Bailey's supervisor wouldn't allow her to file a formal complaint against the co-worker and that she was then subject to a hostile work environment.

"It just got worse and worse and worse.”

The incident was referred to the City's Department of Human Resources, which said in a letter to Bailey, "While we acknowledge the extreme offensiveness of the "N" word...one comment is not sufficiently severe enough to create an abusive working environment."

"For the city to take the position, ‘Well, we don't consider one bad word sufficient,’ that's just the wrong path," says Bailey's Attorney Daniel Bacon.

A human services official tells KTVU the complaint didn't meet the standard set by the federal courts.
The district attorney’s office would only say it referred the matter to the city.

Bailey is seeking damages for emotional distress and for the district attorney and staff to receive training in preventing harassment.