Ashtabula Township trustees settle lawsuit

BY SHELLEY TERRY

For the Star Beacon

JEFFERSON — Jody Bancroft’s lawsuit against the Ashtabula Township trustees, and his former boss, for discrimination, harassment, and retaliatory acts, was settled Friday in Bancroft’s favor, according to Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court records.

Bancroft, 65, a former township firefighter and road department employee, has said road superintendent Todd A. McGill, 51, discriminated against and harassed him because of his age and perceived disability and retaliated against him for objecting to his poor treatment, forcing Bancroft to resign, according to the lawsuit.

Township Trustee Stephen McClure said he’s happy it’s over.

“I still say we did nothing wrong,” he said. The incidents occurred over two years, from 2018 to 2020, according to the complaint.

Beachwood attorney Paul J. Corrado filed the civil suit for Bancroft on Oct. 18, 2022. Common Pleas Judge David Schroeder presided over the hearings.

The trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday, but during last week’s pretrial, the township settled with Bancroft for an undisclosed amount of money, court records show.

“It wasn’t about the money,” Bancroft said when contacted at home Saturday. “It was the principle of the thing.”

Bancroft, who now serves as a Plymouth Township trustee, said he would never treat one of his township’s employees the way he was treated.

Prior to his resignation, Bancroft served as an Ashtabula Township firefighter/EMT for about 35 years and was classified as an engineer for 16 of those years. After retiring from the fire department, Bancroft worked for the township’s road department for six years.

During his initial move to the road department, Bancroft and McGill were co-workers. When Road Superintendent Jeffrey Bond retired in 2018, the trustees promoted McGill to the position.

Bancroft’s complaint claims, “after the township promoted Mr. McGill, he and the township initiated a plan to rid the road department of its older employees and those they regarded as having disabilities.”

Those employees were Bancroft and William White, both now 65 years old, according to the lawsuit.

In 2020, Bancroft suffered a serious back and spinal injury requiring emergency surgery. He reported the injury and the need for immediate surgery in-person to McClure at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Bancroft said he took FMLA leave and sick leave while regularly providing medical updates through his doctor until he returned to work in September 2020.

He also met with McGill on June 17, 2020, at the road department, at which time McGill became angry when Bancroft said he anticipated returning to work in August 2020, according to the lawsuit.

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Bancroft said Mc-Gill used profanity, threatened him and told him he was “o ld” and a “hazard” and that he should quit, according to the complaint.

After that meeting, Bancroft, his wife, and White went to McClure’s home to discuss McGill’s conduct, according to the lawsuit.

Bancroft followed up with an email to the trustees and Mc-Gill describing, and objecting to McGill’s conduct, according to the lawsuit.

Only McClure responded to the email with, “Seriously, Jody?” according to the lawsuit.

Bancroft charges the trustees ignored and refused to deal with his complaints, according to the lawsuit.

When Bancroft returned to work in September 2020, McGill continued his “discriminatory, harassing and retaliatory misconduct” in order to force him out of his job, according to the lawsuit.

Bancroft said he was forced to resign on Dec. 31, 2020 because of McGill’s “abusive” behavior,” according to the lawsuit.

The township then hired a 26-year-old man to replace him, Bancroft said.

Bancroft asked for more than $25,000 in back pay, front pay, future damages and other relief, according to the lawsuit.