HOUSTON – A physician formerly employed by the Houston Forensic Science Center is suing the local government corporation for defamation, recent Harris County District Court records show.
Dr. Tammy Barette filed a lawsuit against the HFSC on Nov. 12 in the Harris County 234th District Court. She alleges that the defendant’s officials made defamatory statements about following her termination last month.
Barette’s suit takes issue with the HFSC divulging to various media outlets that it fired the plaintiff “for violating standard operating procedures when she used her own equipment, a personal alternative light source, in a crime scene investigation.”
According to court papers, the SOP which Barette supposedly violated was modified after the investigations she conducted.
Asserting that “her supervisors were aware that she used (the) ALS throughout her tenure at HFSC,” the complainant says her termination was the defendant’s response to her November 2017 complaint about workplace harassment and discrimination.
Consequently, she seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
Court records show that District Judge Fredericka Phillips granted Barette a temporary restraining order after the litigation was initiated. The TRO is scheduled to expire in two weeks.
Elizabeth Bohorquez of the law firm Bohorquez | Hoefker in Houston is representing the plaintiff.
Harris County 234th District Court Case No. 2018-81317