Shenandoah County Library employee seeks discrimination suit dismissal

By Sally Voth -- svoth@nvdaily.com

HARRISONBURG -- A Shenandoah County Library employee being sued in U.S. District Court by the former library director is asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed.

James Dallas Moore, the library's technology director, filed the motion to dismiss on Wednesday, according to online court records.

He, the board of trustees, trustees Chairman Hank Zimmerman and the library are being sued by Rob Pasco for $14.35 million. Pasco claims he was sacked in October 2010 because of discrimination.

A dispute between Moore and Pasco led first to Moore being fired, and then Pasco being terminated. Moore was soon rehired.

"[Moore] had taken an unnatural interest in Keith Brown, another employee at the Library, during the summer of 2010," the lawsuit says. "Brown had complained of the continuing efforts by Defendant Moore to be involved in Brown's life."

Besides that, Moore was frequently late to work and not performing well, the suit claims.
In an October 2010 interview, Pasco said he and his domestic partner, Brown, had included Moore -- who Pasco had known in Tennessee -- in holiday dinners.

Pasco and Moore got into a tussle on Oct. 1, 2010, with Moore trying to take two external computer hard drives from Pasco's office. Pasco claims he was assaulted by Moore and fired him.

In his motion this week, Moore says Pasco's complaint fails to state a claim or cause of action in which Pasco's civil rights were violated.

"The allegations set forth in the complaint are insufficient to state a federal claim or cause of action against defendant Moore because the acts attributable to him are clearly descriptive of private conduct, based on a personal dispute between an employee and supervisor over perceived favorable treatment given by the supervisor to another employee," a memorandum in support of the motion to dismiss. "Even though Pasco claims that both parties were in the workplace during the work day when the acts occurred, that is simply not enough to make Moore's alleged actions 'state actions.'"