The Grafton County sheriff is suing her predecessor — along with the county and her own sheriff’s department — alleging that she suffered gender discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination when she was a deputy.
Jillian Myers, who was elected Grafton County sheriff in 2024, filed a civil lawsuit earlier this month in Grafton County Superior Court detailing alleged discriminatory, harassing and retaliatory behavior by former Grafton County sheriff Jeff Stiegler.
The 27-page lawsuit largely repeats similar allegations Myers previously made in a complaint against Stiegler she filed with the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission in 2023.
The commission subsequently found probable cause on Myers’ claim of retaliation, but found no grounds for her claims of harassment and discrimination.
Both Myers and Stiegler have filed motions for reconsideration on their respective unfavorable rulings, which remain pending with the commission.
Now, Myers has moved the matter to civil court in order “to preserve the statute of limitations,” according to the lawsuit.
Myers did not respond to an email for comment, and her attorney, Kathleen Davidson with Pastori Krans in Concord, declined to comment on Monday.
Stiegler, a North Haverhill resident, on Monday said that he was not aware of the lawsuit and has not yet been served with notice.
“I certainly look forward to being able to clear my name and getting all this out on the table,” he said, calling the allegations against him “ridiculous assertions.”
In her 2023 complaint to the Human Rights Commission, Myers detailed numerous incidents in which then-sheriff Stiegler allegedly created a hostile work environment, made crude sexual remarks and launched a retaliatory internal affairs complaint against her.
The complaint’s allegations largely form the basis of Myers’ civil lawsuit against Stiegler, which also names Grafton County and the Grafton County Sheriff’s Department as defendants.
Myers, who grew up in Landaff and now lives in Lisbon, worked as a deputy in the Sheriff’s Department from 2021 until 2023, when she claims harassment and a discriminatory office environment left her with little choice but to quit.
During her time as a deputy, Myers alleged that Stiegler, then in his third and last term as sheriff, made crude and belittling comments, some of them sexual in nature and referring to her “butt,” that “embarrassed and humiliated” her.
According to the lawsuit, Stiegler told Myers that “HR” had wanted him to rescind his job offer to her when Myers learned that she was pregnant.
However, that human resources director affirmed to Myers that “such a conversation never occurred between HR and Stiegler,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges nine counts of unlawful conduct, including gender discrimination, sexual harassment, hostile work environment, retaliation, aiding and abetting a hostile work environment, constructive termination, wrongful termination, violation of the whistleblowers protection act and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
It seeks a jury trial and award of “all lawful damages.”
Myers’ lawsuit is the latest litigation or threat of legal action by Grafton County officials against each other.
Stiegler, himself, sued the county in the past.
In 2023, he accused the three-member county commissioners of unlawfully interfering in Sheriff’s Department personnel matters when they reversed his decision to suspend an administrative assistant who Stiegler said had been insubordinate.
The alleged incident of insubordination arose when Stiegler had attempted to learn about the nature of a conversation that Myers, then a deputy, had behind closed doors with the administrative assistant.
But a Superior Court judge dismissed Stiegler’s claims that the commissioners had overstepped in reversing the suspension order, ruling that the sheriff has personnel authority over only sworn deputies, while administrative assistants are county employees.
Myers, before she was elected sheriff, also previously had sent a “demand” letter to the county commissioners seeking payment of $385,000 to settle her alleged misconduct complaint against Stiegler.
Myers’ threat to sue came around the same time that she filed the complaint against Stiegler with the state’s Human Rights Commission in addition to one with the state’s Police Standards and Training Council.
The complaint filed with the Police Standards and Training Council was referred to the state’s Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit, whose Conduct Review Committee found that the allegations against Stiegler “if sustained,” would not “constitute an act of misconduct” under state law and therefore declined to pursue Myers’ claim.
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