$800,000 Federal Jury Verdict for HR Director Retaliated Against After Race Complaints and Stripped of Disability Accommodation

Donna Poplar was hired as the human resources director for the Genesee County Road Commission in October 2016. She is blind in her right eye and lives with chronic open-angle glaucoma in her left, and she disclosed her vision disability when she interviewed. After she pressed for the accommodation, the Commission eventually assigned an administrative assistant, which by late 2019 was a full-time role, to help her with reading and computer navigation for roughly two years.

The accommodation worked, but the working relationship with the Managing Director did not. In February 2019 Poplar filed an EEOC charge alleging disability and race discrimination. In January 2021 she followed with an internal complaint to the Commission's Board, accusing the Managing Director of creating a racially hostile work environment. A second EEOC charge for race discrimination came in May 2021.

The Commission's response was punitive. After she distributed an unauthorized memorandum, the Managing Director placed Poplar on a two-week unpaid suspension. During that suspension she filed another internal complaint, and the Commission then put her on paid administrative leave for several months. The Board approved her return to work in November 2021, but by then her administrative assistant had been promoted and the Managing Director refused to fill the vacant position, effectively eliminating the accommodation that let her do her job. Poplar had emailed Operations Director Randy Dellaposta specifically requesting that the role be filled. The position went unfilled because, the evidence showed, the Managing Director simply did not want to fill it.

Sommers Schwartz attorneys Tad Roumayah and Jenna Sheena, alongside co-counsel Charis (Lee) Williams of the Lee Legal Group, tried the case over eight days in the Eastern District of Michigan. The jury found the Commission liable on both the retaliation claim and the failure to accommodate, awarding $800,000 in total damages, of which the noneconomic portion was $350,000 for retaliation and $403,000 for the failure to accommodate.

The Commission appealed, arguing procedural errors, unfairly prejudicial testimony, and an excessive verdict. The Sixth Circuit rejected each argument and affirmed the district court judgment on July 16, 2025, leaving the full $800,000 award intact.