The U.S. Department of Justice has asked to join the sexual harassment suit filed against Schuylkill County Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr. by four women who work in the courthouse.

The motion was filed Friday; no ruling has been issued.

If granted the motion, the DOJ may have the authority to exercise oversight over the courthouse to avoid any future complaints; review future complaints, write policy, and provide training.

The women’s attorney, Catherine W. Smith, of the Derek Smith Law Group, Philadelphia, called the motion a “win for my clients in some sense, but a win for the citizens of the Schuylkill County and for the courthouse employees.”

County Administrator Gary R. Bender said he was unaware of the motion as of early Friday afternoon.

Efforts to reach Halcovage, who has denied the allegations, for comment were unsuccessful.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asked the DOJ to intervene in the suit.

DOJ attorney Allan K. Townsend wrote that the women concurred with the motion, and that “Counsel for Defendants Halcovage, Bender, (Human Resources Director Heidi L.) Zula, (interim Human Resources Director Doreen) Kutzler, (assistant county solicitor Glenn T.) Roth, and Schuylkill County do not concur.”

Kristen Clarke, assistant Attorney General, civil rights division, United States Department of Justice, wrote that the motion is in the public interest under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

According to the 38-page intervention motion, the DOJ contends that the four women’s “claims are based on several charges of discrimination timely filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC investigated these charges and found reasonable cause to believe that violations of Title VII occurred. The EEOC formally referred this matter to the United States after an unsuccessful attempt to conciliate the charges.”

Further, “in March 2021, the plaintiffs filed supplemental charges of discrimination with the EEOC which alleged, among other things, that the county had unlawfully retaliated against them in violation of Title VII,” the motion says.

The EEOC referred the charges to the DOJ after “unsuccessfully attempting to achieve a voluntary resolution of each of the charges through conciliation,” the motion says.

In addition to demanding a jury trial, the DOJ seeks to: Enjoin the county from causing, creating, or condoning a sexually or retaliatory hostile work environment; order the county to develop and implement appropriate and effective measures designed to prevent and correct harassment and retaliation, including, but not limited to, policies and training for employees and managers; order the county to develop appropriate and effective measures to receive complaints of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation, as well as a process for investigating such complaints; award compensatory damages to plaintiffs to fully compensate them for their injuries caused by the county’s discriminatory and retaliatory conduct; award any additional equitable relief necessary to make the plaintiffs whole; and award such additional relief as justice may require, together with the United States’ costs and disbursements in this action.

The women filed the sexual harassment suit on March 16, 2021, in U.S. District Court, Scranton.

They are identified in the suit as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, Jane Doe 3, and Jane Doe 4; commissioners have accused two of them, who names have since been made public, of making unauthorized searched using the county’s sophisticated database software. Commissioners in November launched an investigation into the searches.

The searches, of about 300 people, have revealed the personal information of not only the search subjects, but of their friends and neighbors, which the software, LexisNexis, automatically provides, which is why the 300 searches may have compromised 9,146 people.

Commissioners on March 9 hired Experian for a total of $277,894 to notify the 9,146 people.

A motion on March 9 to fire the women, who have been identified by Commissioner Gary J. Hess and citizens speaking at public meetings as Tax Claim Director Angela Toomey and Assistant Director Denise McGinley-Gerchak, failed when Hess opposed the move, Halcovage abstained, and Commissioners Chairman Barron L. Hetherington voted in favor.

An investigation by the county Human Resources Department in June 2020 determined Halcovage violated the sexual harassment, conduct and disciplinary action, and the physical and verbal abuse policies.

A move to impeach Halcovage, spearheaded by state Sen. David G. Argall, started in January. State legislators have since subpoenaed an “extensive list” of items as part of the process, state Rep. Paul T. Schemel, R-Franklin County, has said. He chairs the House subcommittee investigating the allegations against Halcovage.