This morning I went to the capital to advocate for certain legislation regarding the justice system. While there I asked when the next hearing regarding judicial appointements or reappointments would be. And it just so happens there are some happening tomorrow: Sean Ociepka of Belfast, and Andrew Lizotte of Dover Foxcroft for District Court. If you have any issues, let the governor and the senate know...though they may tell you "you're only one person."
There was one more nomination: Judge Harold Stewart II to be an active retired justice. He has been practicing in other parts of Maine, but had handled my case in 2016 in Superior Court of Caribou.
In 2012 I was fired, though the only way I knew it, was I just didn't get scheduled to work. The employer had denied me an equal share of pooled tips, and violated other labor law which I notified them about and the issue was not resolved.
I filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC), and after two years my complaint was found to be without reasonable grounds to believe discrimination had occured. The Commission dismisses about 95% of complaints they receive. I was a whistleblower, supposedly a protected class.
After the Commission dismissed my complaint I filed a complaint in Superior Court in Caribou. Neither of us initially hired attorneys, but the defendants (my former employer) later did.
Judge Hunter had been presiding over the case and had allowed me a little leniency after I filed the complaint a few days past the deadline; I had no attorney, and it was October of 2012...I was working long days at potato harvest. For four years the case lingererd in Aroostook County Superior Court.
I was working at blueberry harvest in the autumn of 2015, living away from home. We had tax or sewer liens that needed to be paid. It was 5 weeks of steady work. On my lunch break I'd go use the library if I needed to reply to motions, etc. Eventually I had to prepare interrogatories, but did not know how. The defendant's lawyer filed his own, and I used it as a guide to write mine.
I had since met a woman who told me she'd been treated the same way by the employer, but the defendants denied it. Other wait staff were also subjected to the illegal practices.
When the complaint was in the MHRC, the employer submitted hand-written statements/lies from my co-workers which they assumed would support their position. The letters were hurtful, and were defamation; however, in the letters the other employees detailed the illegal policies of the employer.
I asked for the pay stubs of other waitresses that worked the same shifts I had. Pooled tips must be equally divided between wait staff...I was given about half of what I should have received. My paystub showed the tips I received. Defendants failed to provide the paystubs, though they could have obtained that info from their accountant.
I hand wrote a motion while sitting on the bench outside the courtroom, and filed it immediately with the court, and hand-delivered a copy to the office of the defendants' attorney and asked the receptionist to provide proof she'd received it.
My motion was a request for a hearing on the discovery dispute...but Judge Stewart swiftly dismissed the case, and then said my request was moot.
