Michigan Department of Corrections worker files sexual harassment lawsuit

Sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Michigan Department of Corrections worker

Lisa Gass says she had just started working for the Michigan Department of Corrections as their social media coordinator when the harassment started in 2021.

FOX 2 - Lisa Gass says she had just started working for the Michigan Department of Corrections as their social media coordinator when the harassment started in 2021.

The backstory:

"I was in a bad spot - I knew it was wrong, but I also knew that I needed to work to live," she said. "I found a job that I really loved - but three days and five months into my career here - I received a pornographic video."

The video - she says - was from her direct supervisor at the time, the MDOC Public Information Officer Chris Gautz - sending a video of a woman performing oral sex on him.

"He said - 'Watch her as my secretary trying to keep her job,'" she said. "I knew - in that moment - that that wasn't right."

Gass says she took a video of what Gautz sent her on Snapchat and - she says - it wasn't long before he was coercing her into having sex with him during work hours, in the car, and at work events.

"I need to keep my job - I need to work to live," she said.

Gass says the stress was almost too much to take.

"I was on the edge of suicide almost every day," she said. "I probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my dog."

Her dog - Dakota, was rescued by her when she was an assignment editor at FOX 2. She says she knew she had to keep going for him - and, she says, she had to expose what was happening.

"This isn't right - somebody has to hear my story and maybe we can prevent one more me, from happening," she said.

But, Gass says, before she could, Gautz told his superiors they were involved in a consensual relationship - that he ended, and that Gass was sexually harassing him.

"Thankfully, I had screenshots that really saved me," she said. "I had the evidence to support the truth."

Gass was given a different job within MDOC and Gautz left the Michigan Department of Corrections.

"This is the spokesperson that they put forward who - now we know - was doing these horrible, sicko, illegal things behind closed doors," said attorney Jonathon Marko.

Marko is now suing Gautz and another supervisor and the Michigan Department of Corrections.

"This is very concerning anywhere - it's most concerning in our state government," he said.

Gass says that is what she's fighting for.

"I've already had a woman reach out to me directly - and said - this happened to me, too," she said. "I know - at the end of the day - I'm speaking up for victims everywhere."

Lisa Gass