A Harris County jury awarded a Magnolia area woman more than $250,000 last week in a judgment after they determined her bosses at the Pct. 5 Constables Office harassed her.

A jury in U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore’s courtroom awarded Kimberly Owen $253,000 and determined Pct. 5 Assistant Chief Terry Thurmond sexually harassed her while she was an employee there.

According to Owen’s attorney, Scott Newar, Owen was an employee of Pct. 5 for more than 18 years and earned the highest-ranking position for a female officer ever in the department.

However, Newar said that over the course of her employment, Owen and other women were “subjected to some pretty egregious harassment on a routine basis.”

He said Owen was instructed to go shopping for former Constable Glenn Cheek, and to arrange parties so that Cheek could have a sexual liaison with a female officer.

“Over the course of the years, she put up with this,” Newar said.

Cheek died of cancer in 2007.

Newar also claimed she was treated differently than her male peers.

According to Newar, Montgomery County Deputies stopped Owen after spending an evening with friends in 2006. The deputy believed Owen to be under the influence of alcohol and contacted a member of the constable’s office to drive her home, which, Owen said, was routine and “standard procedure.”

The deputy refused to give her a ride home and Owen was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated. The charge was later dismissed.

“We had evidence that at least one male deputy had been stopped and released and his supervisor had taken him home,” Newar said. “This was a case of differential treatment.”

The jury found Asst. Chief Terry Thurmond guilty of sexual harassment, rather than the late Cheek. Newar said that Thurmond would “undermine” Owen to co-workers and other superior officers.

Owen, Newar said, excelled at computer work and technical support of the office, and often traveled into Houston for training.

“But he (Thurmond) implied that she was a slacker, and did all sorts of petty things that would undermine her,” Newar said. “He would go to a sergeant, rather than communicate with her. It was really death by a thousand cuts.”

Harris County Attorney Lina Garcia represented the county in the case. She did not return messages to the Tribune by press time last week, nor did Pct. 5 constable Phil Camus.

Newar said that his client was pleased with the jury’s decision.

“The message that went forth is a good one,” he said, “that this stuff needs to stop in Harris County, women law enforcement officers are equal and deserve to be treated equal in the workplace.”

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