Former female agent sues FBI claiming sexual harassment, discrimination
Inappropriate sexual remarks became so commonplace within the FBI ranks of a special drug task force that male agents would often joke about how many zeroes would be on a lawsuit after particularly rancid remarks.
Danielle Marks identified FBI Director James Comey as a defendant in the federal civil lawsuit filed Thursday on her behalf by Denver attorneys Charlotte Sweeney and Kaitlyn Wright.
Marks is asking to be reinstated as an FBI agent, and seeking back pay, compensatory damages and attorneys fees in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Denver.
Marks claims that she was “constructively fired” when she resigned under duress from the FBI in September 2014 after a year of discriminatory treatment.
“After a year of enduring constant inappropriate comments and poor treatment, the
environment at the (Metro Gang Task Force) became so hostile and intolerable that it began to affect Ms. Marks’s mental health,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also raises questions about the professionalism of FBI agents who allegedly failed inexplicably to perform surveillance or wiretapping duties, presumably because Marks led the drug operations.
Marks became a FBI agent in 2010 and worked as a drug and gang officer in Baltimore, where she received “successful,” and “excellent” marks. She transferred to Denver in 2013, where she joined the MGTF, which is made up of Denver and Aurora police officers and federal agents.