Lawyer files suit against Mahoning County JFS

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A black female lawyer has sued Mahoning County and its Department of Job and Family Services, saying she was illegally laid off from her job as a staff attorney.

She claimed her layoff from JFS was in retaliation for her having filed discrimination charges against her employer.

Kimberly Akins of Liberty Township said she was a staff attorney in the agency’s Child Support Enforcement Agency from Jan. 19, 1999, until her layoff Oct. 21, 2009.

On Sept. 8, 2009, Akins filed charges with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging the county illegally denied her a promotion to human-resources administrator due to her race and sex.

Akins filed the lawsuit, which demands a jury trial, last week in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The suit seeks her re-instatement to her former position, or to a position of equal status, with back pay and more than $25,000 each in compensatory and punitive damages.

The case is assigned to Judge R. Scott Krichbaum.

Paul J. Gains, county prosecutor, declined to comment, and Judee Genetin, JFS director, could not be reached to comment.