A Bangor man who is a member of the Oglala Tribe has sued the local Ramada Inn alleging that he was fired after reporting he was harassed at work for being a Native American.
Benjamin Humphrey, 48, claims in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor that instead of investigating his complaint that a co-worker called him “chief” and used her fingers to imitate feathers on a headband, hotel management cut his hours, then made up an excuse to fire him.
Humphrey worked as a part-time night auditor at the Bangor motel on Odlin Road between May 25 and Nov. 14, 2019, the complaint said. In addition to working that job 24 hours a week, he picked up additional shifts and sometimes worked as many as 48 hours a week.
The lawsuit said that after Humphrey made his complaint, Manager Free Martin went through security tapes of Humphrey’s recent shifts and saw him sleeping on a lobby sofa when he was supposed to be working and allowing a non-employee behind the desk. Humphrey claimed he was not sleeping but lying down and resting while no customers were in the lobby, which was allowed, and that he had seen other employees allow non-workers behind the desk.
A representative of the Ramada Inn did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The inn has served as a homeless shelter under the management of Penobscot Community Health Care since September 2020.
Humphrey served five years in prison for manslaughter in the death of a Canadian tourist in July 2002 in Old Orchard Beach, according to his criminal history from the State Bureau of Investigation. He got into a fight with Derek Rogers, 47, of Russell, Ontario, after the tourist allegedly called Humphrey’s sister a derogatory term for Native American women, according to the Associated Press.
Rogers was severely beaten and suffocated with sand. His body was found by a fisherman on the beach in the Ocean Park section of Old Orchard Beach on July 31, 2002.
Humphrey’s sister, Angela “Kelly” Humphrey-Moore, 47, of Bangor pleaded guilty to manslaughter and perjury for her role in the slaying. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The siblings have completed their prison terms in that case.
The most recent conviction in Benjamin Humphrey’s long criminal history in Maine was for drunken driving on Nov. 9, 2019, less than a week before he was fired. He was sentenced to 48 hours in jail, fined $1,000 and his license was suspended for 150 days.
Staff at the Ramada Inn did not ask Humphrey about his criminal history and no one ran a criminal background check before he was hired, the complaint said.
Humphrey received right-to-sue letters from the Maine Human Rights Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before filing the lawsuit.
His attorney, Chad Hansen of Portland, said that Humphrey has not yet found a new job.
“Mr. Humphrey did the right thing when he stood up and opposed harassment on the basis of his Native American heritage and his opposition was protected by state and federal law,” Hansen said Tuesday. “He has suffered substantially as a result of the termination and we are grateful that these laws provide a remedy.”