Board settles claims against state

Thursday, April 16, 1998 | 11:28 a.m.

The board, made up of Gov. Bob Miller, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and Secretary of State Dean Heller, approved the settlements after being told Wednesday that the state or state employees were at fault.

Julia Jaeger was paid $35,000 for a 1994 incident in which she was subjected to a body cavity search by an untrained Parole and Probation Division employee in Carson City. Jaeger had sought $500,000.

The agency no longer uses volunteers from its clerical staff to conduct such searches. The officers involved in the incident were reprimanded.

Angel Muleshkov, an instructor at the University of Nevada, Reno, was paid $171,000 after winning a lawsuit claiming he was discriminated against when his contract was not renewed for 1995. Muleshkov, an assistant professor of math, has returned to work at the university as a result of a favorable verdict in a jury trial.

Linda Torgerson and Gayle Smith were each paid $32,500 to settle complaints they were inappropriately touched by a state psychologist in Carson City between 1994 and 1996. The psychologist, John L. Wallace, no longer works for the state.

A University of Nevada, Reno, grounds keeper was paid $19,500 for being improperly fired in 1996.

Two accident claims, one involving a state employee running a red light in 1995 and another resulting from an inadequately designed intersection where a death occurred in 1992, were settled for $70,900 in total.

Laura Fletcher, who worked as a dispatcher for the UNLV Campus Police Department, was awarded $49,000 for a hostile work environment claim. She was subjected to frequent touching and comments by a sergeant in the department, Wayne Washington. Washington was fired after the last such incident, which occurred in February 1995.

And Michelle McHardy, who attempted suicide in 1995 when she was 16 and in custody of the state, was awarded $30,000. McHardy was placed on an airplane alone for transfer from Reno to the Caliente Youth Center. McHardy was given a month's supply of antidepressants and tried to commit suicide while on the plane.

The Youth Parole Bureau has since revised its procedures to ensure that youth transferred by aircraft don't have medications in their possession.