A Waldoboro man is suing the state of Maine for taking away his longtime prison job after he cited safety and other concerns.

According to James O'Farrell's suit filed January 23 in Lincoln County Superior Court, the state maintained his job loss in 2011 stemmed from cuts. But he contends it was because he said understaffing was jeopardizing the safety of staff, inmates and visitors at the Maine State Prison, and because he questioned then-Prison Warden Patricia Barnhart’s plans to buy property from the Maine Department of Corrections.

Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte declined to comment on the suit’s claims.

The Attorney General’s Office will be filing a response with the court on behalf of the corrections department, Kaylene Waindle, special assistant to Attorney General Janet Mills, said February 7.

Also reached February 7, O’Farrell deferred comment to his lawyer, who did not immediately return a message.

O'Farrell worked more than 33 years for the department. The final 12 years, he was deputy warden of security at the state prison, the suit states. He's accusing the department of violating the Maine Whistleblowers’ Protection Act. The law bars employers from retaliating against employees who report safety risks or law violations.

O’Farrell wants his job back, plus unspecified amounts of money in back pay, benefits and other damages; he's also asking the court to order worker rights training for department management, and order the commissioner to write employees a letter stating retaliation against them won't be tolerated.

O’Farrell filed a whistleblower complaint against the corrections department with the Maine Human Rights Commission in August 2011, about two months after his job ended. The commission ended its investigation last month because O’Farrell asked for and received a right-to-sue letter, case controller Cindy Albert said.

“That stops our process. We are out of the case,” Albert said.

Because the complaint was made at least 180 days earlier, O’Farrell had a right to the letter under Maine law, Albert said.

“A right-to-sue letter is no indication of whether we would have found cause or not if we were to have completed the investigation,” she said.

O'Farrell's court suit claims Warden Barnhart told him his statements about understaffing would cause the commissioner to clean house, and that O'Farrell would be next.

“...Barnhart's statement regarding 'cleaning house' meant that if (O'Farrell) continued complaining about the unsafe conditions created by the reduction in staffing that (O'Farrell) could be retaliated against with termination,” the suit states.

The alleged retaliation cost O'Farrell wages and benefits, and injured his reputation and career, the suit claims.

It alleges that on June 10, 2011, one day after telling Barnhart his concerns about her plans to buy a Thomaston property off the department, O'Farrell got two weeks' notice that he was losing his job to staffing cuts.

“The explanation for (the) termination is not true and is a pretext for unlawful retaliation,” the suit states.

The state later voided the sale to Barnhart as a barred transaction under state law, according to published reports at the time.

After O’Farrell was notified of his termination, he emailed Governor Paul LePage to request a meeting, but no one responded, according to the suit.

LePage’s press secretary Adrienne Bennett did not immediately return messages inquiring about O’Farrell’s claim regarding the email.

O’Farrell has applied for other jobs at the prison but has not been rehired, according to his suit.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com