A Cowlitz County Public Utility District employee is suing the agency and one of its staffing companies for negligence, claiming they created a risk to others by hiring a man with a previous voyeurism conviction, who eventually was convicted for secretly recording the employee and another without consent while on the job.
The lawsuit claims that even after the PUD learned of the man's past convictions, Brett Lee McCord, 36, of Longview was permitted to work with staff unsupervised.
Julie Johnson, 50, of Longview, a 20-year PUD employee, filed the lawsuit Friday in Cowlitz County Superior Court against the PUD and ABM Industry Groups, LLC — a Texas-based company that provides some staffing for the district.
A press release by Johnson's attorney — Colin F. McHugh of McHugh Law in Vancouver — states Johnson "experienced severe emotional distress, mental anguish, and humiliation" because of McCord's voyeurism, as well as Cowlitz PUD and ABM's inability to prevent the incident from occurring. Johnson's suit doesn't mention any monetary amount, only the "amount to be established at the time of trial."
Alice Dietz, spokesperson for Cowlitz PUD, clarified in an email that McCord was never employed directly by the PUD; he was a contracted janitor, and declined to comment further.
The PUD is a member-owned agency that provides electricity to thousands of Cowlitz County customers, and is represented by three member-elected commissioners.
The suit alleges the PUD and the staffing agency didn't complete a background check when they hired McCord as a janitor in 2018. The year prior he pleaded guilty in Cowlitz County Superior Court to 14 sex crimes, including secretly videotaping assaulting women, according to a 2017 article by The Daily News.
The case's court records show McCord pleaded guilty to indecent liberties, first-degree possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and voyeurism.
The suit states it was easy to discover McCord's past transgressions: a "simple web search" would have shown his crimes published in local media.
Johnson's position required her to sometimes work with the janitorial staff, unsupervised, the suite adds.
In 2021, McCord applied to be a PUD meter reader through a different staffing company called Employers Overload, says the suit. That hiring process included a background check that uncovered his previous convictions; he was denied the meter reading position, but kept his janitorial job.
Five months later, a different PUD employee found a GoPro camera underneath a female employee's desk that contained video and photos of Johnson and another female employee, police records show.
McCord was sentenced in August to seven years in state prison for two counts of first-degree voyeurism, and a no-contact order was installed by a judge for Johnson and the other victims until the year 2028. He's appealing his guilty verdict, according to court documents.
