ROCKLAND, Maine — A veteran Rockland police detective has filed a federal lawsuit against the city, claiming it demoted her and refused reasonable accommodations for her due to her pregnancy.
The lawsuit on behalf of Anne Griffith was filed July 18 by her attorney Martin Tartre of the Employee Rights Group in Portland in U.S. District Court in Portland.
She is seeking damages that include back pay and lost benefits. She is claiming sex discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, retaliation and disability discrimination.
She had filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September 2024 and both agencies provided her in May 2025 with letters allowing her to sue since they had not yet acted on her claims.
Griffith has worked for the Police Department since October 2017. She is a detective.
The veteran public safety officer had asked to work from home during the pregnancy and after but the city denied the accommodation. The lawsuit details the work she would perform remotely.
“She had the right to be accommodated, and to suggest that accommodating her would be unfair to other employees is clear pregnancy discrimination,” the lawsuit states.
Griffith was not paid for her full hours by Rockland from November 2023, through October 2024. She used paycheck insurance, sick time, and paid time off but ultimately had to go on unpaid leave. Griffith’s maternity leave was going to be covered by PTO and sick time, but due to Rockland’s refusal to accommodate her, her maternity leave was unpaid. The Rockland Fire Department transferred to Griffith a large quantity of banked sick leave because she had used up all of hers.
Griffith said shortly after her return to work in October 2024, she was informed that her contract with the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit had ended while she was on leave and that the city had elected not to renew it. This decision was surprising to Griffith, the lawsuit states. Her appointment, one of only two in the state, had been considered a promotion.
“Rockland demoted Griffith by failing to renew her contract with the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit. Rockland’s demotion was retaliation against Griffith for requesting an accommodation and engaging in protected activity under (state and federal laws). Because the City chose not to renew her contract, Griffith no longer had Statewide jurisdiction and had to relinquish her state-issued cruiser, computers and electronics, and state issued IDs and badge. She also lost access to certain state-wide databases,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit further states when she returned to work, Rockland gave Griffith the oldest and worst cruiser in its fleet, even though she is the most senior detective in the Police Department. When Griffith returned to work after maternity leave, she noticed that a lot of her equipment had been taken away from her and not replaced. This included a computer monitor, external speakers and a handcuff carrier.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.
