An employee of the Hall County tax assessor’s office is suing her employers, claiming she was repeatedly subjected to sexual harassment by her boss and suffered retaliation for reporting it.

In documents filed in federal court last month, Pamela Dixon is asking that a jury decide whether harassment occurred and for unspecified monetary damages should she win her case.

Dixon claims she was sexually harassed by another employee, Richard Lathem, beginning in 2007.

Attorneys for the Hall County Board of Assessors have repeatedly disputed the claims, which officially date back to 2009. They have even protested a ruling from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that Dixon’s charges have merit and a suggestion that the county pay Dixon as much as a $100,000 settlement.

The complaint, filed in federal court on June 14 by Gainesville attorney Julius Hulsey, claims that the board of tax assessors recklessly disregarded Dixon’s right to be free from discrimination.

Both Dixon and Lathem are still employed by the county. Lathem was Dixon’s immediate supervisor until January 2012, according to the suit.

On Monday, Bill Blalock, the county attorney, said the county’s position still hasn’t changed on the issue.

He referred all questions regarding the county’s position to a written response to the claims last year when the EEOC sought the $100,000 settlement.

Dixon’s complaints now come with the blessing of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

The agency granted Dixon permission to sue the county in mid-March after reviewing the EEOC’s report.

No one from the Justice Department responded to a request for comment Monday.

Dixon’s attorney, Hulsey, also said it was inappropriate to comment, adding that he would allow the court documents to speak for themselves.

In those documents, Dixon claims that the sexual harassment began in September 2007, a little more than a year after Lathem received a job she also applied for.

She claims to have developed severe anxiety as a result of the harassment.

Dixon claims that Lathem walked behind her and “touched her in an inappropriate and sexually suggestive manner” one day while she was opening the mail.

According to court documents, Dixon reported the incident to her then-supervisor, Lyman Martin, and told Lathem not to touch her again.

Dixon claims the harassment occurred a second time in February 2008 after Lathem had replaced Martin as her supervisor.

“(Dixon) was again humiliated, distressed and felt personally violated,” the court complaint states. “(Dixon) also began to feel very insecure and nervous in that she was concerned that Lathem may try to touch her again.”

According to court documents, the unwanted touching occurred at least two other times that year, and in January 2009, court documents allege, Lathem touched Dixon in the same manner in front of co-workers.

Dixon alleges that the harassment continued throughout the year, including an incident in which Lathem opened a door to an employee restroom Dixon was using alone.

Dixon also alleges that after making a complaint with Hall County’s director of Human Resources, Linda Pryor, Lathem criticized Dixon for the report and gave her a low score on an annual performance evaluation.

Lathem’s then-supervisor, former chief tax assessor Mike Henderson, also signed the lower evaluation.

It had been Dixon’s first critical evaluation, according to the complaint.

“Such conduct on the part of the tax assessor’s chief department head is strong evidence of the pervasive attitude for tolerance of sexual abuse, harassment, and discrimination against women that prevails within their department,” the lawsuit states.

An independent investigator — local attorney Sam Harben — hired by the county in November 2009 recommended the board of tax assessors change Dixon’s personnel evaluation, which attorney Benton Mathis stated had been done. In his report, Harben also concluded that Dixon had not been sexually harassed by Lathem, nor had she been retaliated against.

In her July 22, 2009, performance evaluation, Dixon was given an overall score of 4.6 out of a possible 5.

The highest score handed out in her department that year, according to a county attorney’s letter to the EEOC, was 4.69.

Blalock on Monday made little comment on the claims, but said the county’s position, outlined in a 2011 letter to the EEOC by Mathis, was still the same.

In September of last year, the EEOC asked that Dixon be paid $100,000 in damages for the harassment.

Attorneys for the county Board of Tax Assessors said the decision “was clearly erroneous and should be reversed,” according to a letter written by Mathis last year.

“...It is illogical for (Dixon) to allege that Mr. Lathem’s allegedly boorish activity negatively impacted her work performance when that performance was actually so good as to earn a very high evaluation rating,” Mathis wrote in that 2011 letter.

In that same letter of response, Mathis cited numerous court decisions in which employees claimed sex-based hostile work environments, but the courts determined the complaints were not severe enough for the designation.

Included in those court cases are incidences of a supervisor asking an employee on the phone if she was naked and a supervisor telling an employee he became sexually excited when she walked into the room.

On Monday, Blalock said there was never any settlement negotiations between the county and the EEOC.