ATF Comes Under Fire for Treatment of Women in Workplace

(Photo: ATF/Facebook)

While many ATF agents are no doubt competent, disciplined, and well-meaning, the agency is best-known in the pro-gun community for confusing firearms regulations, investigative fumbles, or poor record-keeping.

Now we can add one more blunder to the list.

The Boston Globe ran a lengthy exposé last week highlighting several troubling incidents within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms involving women who were demeaned, sexually harassed, and sexually assaulted.

Much of the report revolves around Special Agent SherryAnn Quindley, who recently won a lawsuit against the ATF in which she claimed that her boss, Billy Wright, excluded her from meetings about the program she ran, humiliated and demeaned her in front of co-workers, and applied different rules to her than her male counterparts.

“You feel like you can protect others and then all of a sudden it comes down to: You can’t even protect yourself,” she told the Globe. “And that’s devastating.”

The Justice Department’s complaint adjudication office found in September 2015 that Wright displayed “discriminatory animus” toward Quindley and other women at ATF, noting that some of the male agents she worked with corroborated her claims and “believed her work environment was hostile and abusive.”

The feds paid Quindley $533,000, which included $238,000 in attorneys’ fees.

But despite Quindley’s eventual victory, the ATF’s reticence to take corrective measures against Wright indicates a potentially larger problem within the agency.

According to the Globe, Quindley’s initial complaint was sent to ATF agent Lisa Kincaid, who filed a 272-page preliminary report in 2014, corroborating allegations of misconduct by Wright and his supervisor, Charlie Smith, chief of the Special Operations Division. Kincaid said that Smith refused to take action against Wright in response to complaints from multiple women.

But, like Smith, the ATF failed to discipline either man, both of whom went on to prestigious posts.

“In the end they didn’t care about any of the women,” Kincaid said during a recent telephone interview with her lawyers by her side. “I was told, ‘They are not victims, they are complainants.’”

SEE ALSO: Let’s Abolish the ATF, Says New Bill

Wright is currently serving as a resident-agent-in-charge in Puerto Rico, according to court filings.

Smith has recently retired, and despite the Justice Department’s findings, he maintains he never knew about Wright’s misconduct.

“Mr. Smith was a decorated agent of the ATF and served honorably and admirably for 30 years before his voluntary retirement,” according to a statement from Smith’s attorney, Danielle Bess Obiorah. “He never condoned nor was aware of any discrimination directed toward any employee. He never harassed or subjected any employee to discrimination.”

Quindley doesn’t want to vilify all of the ATF’s 2,575 male agents. “I’m in a good place right now,” she said, “and it’s because of some pretty remarkable men that did stand up and do the right thing.”

She also noted that she’s seen positive changes, including in the leadership at ATF’s internal affairs division.