ROCKLAND, Maine — A Tenants Harbor woman is suing a Massachusetts-based company that fired her shortly after she left another job and moved to the midcoast area to accept a new position.
Robin Gasparino filed the lawsuit Monday in Knox County Superior Court claiming “negligent representation” against Spectrum Health Systems Inc.
Gasparino left a job at Mercy Hospital in Portland and gave up her residence in southern Maine to work for Spectrum, which provides assessment and case management services to prisoners who are going to be leaving the state prison system.
The woman began her job with Spectrum on June 17 and was to be trained to serve prisoners at the Bolduc Correctional Facility in Warren.
Gasparino said she informed the company when she applied that she had a 2004 misdemeanor drug possession conviction for which she paid a $300 fine, according to the lawsuit. She said the company did a background check on her and throughout the hiring process she was told that the conviction would not be a problem.
One of the requirements of her job, however, was to receive training at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. But the Academy would not allow her to train there because her conviction was more recent than 10 years, according to the lawsuit.
Spectrum then asked her to resign and terminated her employment on Sept. 5.
In her suit, Gasparino accuses Spectrum of negligent representation and seeks “reasonable damages” for the financial and emotional pain the company caused by letting her go.
Andrew Strecker, development associate for Spectrum, said that the company had not yet seen the complaint and could not comment at this time.