Justly Prudent sues Maryland for shelving combat veteran's sexual harassment complaint during her deployment

On June 11, 2026, Justly Prudent filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the State of Maryland, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, and a former supervisor on behalf of Janae C. Dorman, a decorated combat veteran and former correctional officer at Eastern Correctional Institution.

In April 2022, Dorman filed a formal written sexual harassment complaint against her direct supervisor, reporting that he had propositioned her for sex, commented on her body, and touched her without her consent. The Department promised that an investigator would contact her promptly. No one ever did.

Three months later, Dorman deployed overseas under federal military orders, serving in Kuwait, Jordan, and Syria. While stationed in Syria, she came under enemy fire and earned the Combat Action Badge. Back home, her employer made a decision that now sits at the center of this lawsuit. In October 2022, a senior official in the Department's equal employment office confirmed in writing that Dorman's complaint had been "held in abeyance due to your deployment, and will be reinstated and thoroughly investigated."

That promise was broken. According to the complaint, the investigation was never reinstated, and when Dorman returned to duty in October 2023, the Department returned the very supervisor she had reported to her evening shift, with authority over her. The Department denied her seniority-based transfer request while granting transfers to less-senior officers, leaving her no way to escape daily contact with the man she had reported.

The complaint alleges that conditions then deteriorated further. In March 2024, the supervisor positioned himself at the facility gatehouse to watch Dorman partially disrobe during the mandatory entry screening, an incident witnessed and documented by multiple officers. Days later, a senior official allegedly ordered those investigative records destroyed, reasoning that Dorman had "probably filed up the road"—meaning an external civil rights complaint. A lieutenant refused the order, preserved the originals, and documented the directive in writing. When Dorman sent an emergency complaint to the Department's equal employment office that same month, attaching her original complaint and the gatehouse records, she waited 76 days for a response.

On August 23, 2024, after more than two years of inaction, Dorman resigned from the career she had built since 2017. The lawsuit alleges that her working conditions had become so intolerable that her resignation amounted to a constructive discharge.

The complaint brings claims under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), which forbids employers from denying any benefit of employment because of military service; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex-based harassment and retaliation; and the Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act. Dorman seeks, among other things, compensatory damages for willful USERRA violations.

"Janae Dorman answered our country's call, came under enemy fire, and came home to discover that her own employer had used her service against her," said Attorney Jordan D. Howlette, who represents Dorman in the lawsuit. "Maryland put her complaint on a shelf because she deployed, put her harasser back in charge of her shift, and ordered the evidence destroyed according to records preserved by an officer of conscience. No servicemember should ever pay that price for wearing the uniform."

The case is Janae C. Dorman v. State of Maryland, et al. (Case No. 1:26-cv-02344-SAG), filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.