A federal judge has granted a few of Schuylkill County Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr. and County Administrator Gary R. Bender’s requests to dismiss claims made against them in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by four women who work in the courthouse.

But the majority of the claims will remain.

The original suit was filed in March 2021, contending that Halcovage sexually harassed the women beginning when he was elected in 2012. A second amended lawsuit was filed in October 2021, after the women say they were retaliated against by Halcovage, Bender and the county for coming forward with their accusations, which are based on the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, and Pennsylvania common law. The claims in question are from the second amended suit.

The requests for dismissals of the claims were filed on behalf of Halcovage, Bender, and the county on Nov. 18, 2021.

United States Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson handed down the rulings on May 5 and 6.

In his request for dismissal, Halcovage lists the women’s claims: Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress; Discrimination; Retaliation; Aiding and Abetting; 14th Amendment Equal Protection Claim for Disparate Treatment; 14th Amendment Equal Protection Claim for hostile work environment, and First Amendment Retaliation.

Carlson granted Halcovage’s request to dismiss the discrimination claim, but not the others.

To meet the discrimination claim, Halcovage would have had to have been the women’s employer or joint employer, the judge wrote.

“We are not persuaded by the plaintiffs’ assertion that Halcovage, an individual employee, albeit a county commissioner, can be considered a “joint employer” for purposes of their PHRA discrimination claim,” Carlson wrote.

In the matters of Bender and the county, Carlson granted the requests for dismissal of the PHRA discrimination claim as well as the claim for punitive damages.

He denied the request to dismiss the other claims, including retaliation, creating a hostile work environment because of their sex, claims under the Equal Protection Clause for disparate treatment and creating a hostile work environment, and a First Amendment retaliation claim against the county.

The women, identified only as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, Jane Doe 3, and Jane Doe 4, filed the sexual harassment suit on March 16, 2001, in U.S. District Court, Scranton.

Named in the suit are Halcovage, Bender, Human Resources Director Heidi L. Zula, interim Human Resources Director Doreen Kutzler, First Assistant County solicitor Glenn T. Roth, and Schuylkill County.

Commissioners in September accused two of them, whose names have since been made public and who worked in the Tax Claims Office, of making unauthorized searched using the county’s sophisticated database software. They were suspended without pay.

In November, commissioners launched an investigation into the searches. The results of that investigation have yet to be made public.

Commissioners’ Chairman Barron L. Hetherington has said the searches may have revealed sensitive personal information of 9,146 people.

Commissioners on March 9 hired Experian for a total of $277,894 to notify those people.

A motion on March 9 to fire the women, who have been identified by Commissioner Gary J. Hess and citizens speaking at public meetings as Tax Claim Director Angela Toomey and Assistant Director Denise McGinley-Gerchak, failed when Hess opposed the move, Halcovage abstained, and Hetherington voted in favor.

An investigation by the county Human Resources Department in June 2020 determined Halcovage violated the sexual harassment, conduct and disciplinary action, and the physical and verbal abuse policies.

In January, state Sen. David G. Argall launched a move to impeach Halcovage. That process is moving through the state legislature.