A lawsuit filed Wednesday by Montgomery attorney Julian McPhillips names Selma Mayor Darrio Melton and former Selma Parks and Recreation Department Director Sean VanDiver as defendants.

The lawsuit, which expands more than a dozen pages, was filed on behalf of former Selma Parks and Recreation Department employee Carneetie Ellison, who is accusing Melton and VanDiver, along with the City of Selma, of retaliation, violation of due process rights, sexual harassment and discrimination and violation of First Amendment rights.

According to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, Ellison worked as a merit employee for the City of Selma from 2003 until she was “involuntarily” dismissed from her job on Oct. 15 of last year.

Ellison was moved from the City’s Tax and License Office to the Parks and Recreation Department as secretary in 2005 and was promoted to Administrative Assistant in 2015, before being promoted to Interim Director the following year.

Prior to the mayoral election of 2016, former Selma Mayor George Evans wrote to Ellison and advised her that the new mayor would likely return her to her Administrative Assistant position and appoint a Director for the office.

Around the same time, then-candidate Melton showed up at Ellison’s residence, along with Terry Jackson, and began asking Ellison about the department’s business and revenue, whether or not she supported his campaign and how she would generate more money for the department once he was elected, according to the lawsuit – Ellison stated that she would not discuss the department’s finances with a candidate and gave no indication as to whom she was backing for mayor.

After Melton won the election and took office in November 2016, VanDiver held a meeting and informed department staff that he was the new director.

“[Ellison] understood that she would return to her position as Administrative Assistant of the [department],” the lawsuit states. “It soon became clear, however, that [VanDiver] was a direct extension of the mayor, such that the actions of [VanDiver] were also the actions of [Melton] or the City of Selma.”

The lawsuit states that VanDiver announced that “he did not need training” and that he criticized male employees in the department – Ellison was the only woman – for working under a woman, saying “You guys are like ancient dinosaurs, you let one woman run the department.”

Ellison was instructed by VanDiver to return all of her department keys, which she did shortly before VanDiver moved his office from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to city hall.

The lawsuit states that Ellison was the victim of sexual harassment in the form of “sexually offensive language” and “sexually offensive jokes” from certain male employees in the department and that a report to her supervisor, Jackson, yielded no results.

In February 2017, the Selma City Council created the position of Assistant Recreations Director at Melton’s request and VanDiver immediately appointed Jackson to the position, without accepting applications or providing notice of the opening.

“Thereafter, and for the remainder of 2017, [VanDiver] and [Jackson] attempted to coerce [Ellison] into resigning her position with the [department],” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit states that VanDiver forced Ellison to attend volunteer functions and city/county meetings without notice and sent “numerous memorandums” attacking her abilities and job performance and making additional demands that were not part of her job.

In November 2017, Ellison filed the first of four complaints against the City of Selma with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for sex discrimination, after filing an employee grievance locally.

Other complaints were filed alleging that the discrimination only worsened after the initial complaint and that Ellison was suffering retaliation from VanDiver as a result of the earlier complaint.

In April 2018, Jackson allegedly created a disciplinary document against Ellison, a copy of which was never provided to her, and a few months later Melton instructed VanDiver to “get rid” of Ellison – after Melton stated on Oct. 15, 2018 that a round of lay-offs was imminent, Ellison was “constructively terminated” by Jackson, the lawsuit claims.

Since then, “numerous new employees” have been hired by the department, but Ellison, with 15 years of experience, has not been recalled or rehired.

Ellison is demanding compensation for all lost pay benefits, court costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees, an award of compensatory damages for mental anguish and punitive damages and other relief the court deems appropriate.

Additionally, Ellison is asking that her suit be taken up before a jury.

Ellison said she wants “to see justice served and be made whole again.”

“Emotionally, mentally, I have been physically drained and my faith has been tested, pushed to the point of almost no return,” Ellison said. “But I know through all of this that my God is a way-maker and is bigger than the problems I’m facing now. It’s also been hard for my family because hunger doesn’t discriminate, homelessness doesn’t discriminate. My career and retirement was stolen from me by the point of a finger by this administration.”

Melton declined to comment and VanDiver could not be reached.