Former Hazel Park staffer sues city for sexual harassment

Well, tonight, a former staffer for the city of Hazel Park is suing her ex-employer. She's alleging years of unwanted sexual advances from her boss, the city manager. Fox News' Dave Kinchin is working this story live tonight from Hazel Park with the details on the allegations. Dave. Yeah, Rup, this lawsuit comes more than a year after this employee left the job here. City Hall in Hazel Park has been reeling from this lawsuit. We want to give you a warning. Some of the details aren't quite alarming. Take a look. Here's what we know right now. Linda Murado filed the lawsuit against the city of Hazel Park and names her former boss, city manager Ed Klobuchar. It says he spent years allegedly sexually harassing her when she served as his executive assistant and special projects coordinator. Her lawsuit alleges he hugged and kissed her nearly every day, called her his, quote, beautiful Disney princess, his work wife, and talked about his genitals in front of her with other co-workers around. When she tried to transfer to another city department to get away from him, the filing says that the city manager blocked the move, telling her he was too selfish to let her leave. Now, the court filing also alleges that Klobuchar, the city manager, commented on her body to the point where she deliberately dressed down to avoid... unwanted sexual remarks. Now the complaint paints a picture of systemic cover-ups at City Hall, alleging that the city's HR coordinator avoided discipline for allegedly sending pictures of his genitals to police and fire staff by threatening to expose the city manager. It claims top officials knew about the abuse and that when Murado finally resigned, she was coerced into signing departure paperwork and escorted out of City Hall by police. Here's her Pretty emotionally distraught right now. She is making far less compensation than she was with the city. And in terms of what does justice look like, it looks like compensating her for the shortfall of the compensation since she left the city and going forward the rest of her career. The city of Hazel Park is commenting with this statement from its law firm. It says, quote, Linda Murado left employment with the city of Hazel Park in October of 2025. The lawsuit was filed more than a year later. The city and Mr. Klobuchar, the city manager, denied the allegations contained in the complaint and intend to vigorously defend the veracity of the allegations will be tested in the litigation process. Back live now, her attorney says she filed the lawsuit a year after quitting the job Because she had to go through the EEOC process. She says once she had healed enough from the ordeal and that she could not actually file that complaint until she got, of course, a letter from the EEOC, which was a right to sue letter. Now, tonight on The Edge, what we're going to talk about is what happened when she tried to leave and the talk of even raises that she was allegedly offered to get her to stay. We'll talk about that tonight on The Edge. Reporting live in Hazel Park, Dave Kinchin, Fox 2 News. Yeah, you know, and obviously when you're talking about allegations against the top boss, it could make it more difficult for someone to try to, you know, get what they need, which is the freedom. But was she able to talk to HR within the city or perhaps even talk to city council members who, of course, the city manager, I would imagine, would report to? Yeah, that was really the challenge. Your lawyer says that because this is all administration, the city manager is the top city official that actually works for the city, runs the city. And that even H.R. and the city attorney allegedly knew about all of this. But ultimately, her attorney says they did not come through for her on this. Part of the reason they feel the lawsuit is necessary. Our Dave Kinchin for us live tonight in Hazel Park. Dave, thank you.