PHILADELPHIA – One of the lawsuits filed by alleged victims of the former head of Delaware County’s Department of Emergency Services will continue, as a Philadelphia federal judge has allowed a bodily-integrity claim to move on while dismissing others.
Judge Mia Perez on Sept. 26 said Delaware County must face the due process argument of Jacqueline Kahler, a former employee who alleged the now-fired Timothy Boyce, who faces criminal charges, sexually harassed her.
Kahler’s lawsuit says Boyce made inappropriate comments, like telling her she “had a nice ass,” and in January 2024 pulled her into his office, kissed her and grabbed “her backside.” Kahler said she felt compelled to quit after the incident and sued Delaware County and several county officials, not including Boyce, later that year.
Those defendants moved to dismissed most of the claims in the lawsuit and were granted dismissal of some: state-law sex discrimination, hostile environment and retaliation, negligence and negligent supervision. Left standing are the due process claim and a federal-law claim for sex discrimination and hostile work environment.
Kahler sufficiently alleged an unconstitutional custom on the part of Delaware County, Perez wrote. Kahler said her right to bodily integrity was violated by a failure of the county to conduct investigations into sexual misconduct.
“Here, Kahler establishes a pattern of DES supervisory employees choosing not to report sexual harassment that they personally observed or learned of through complaints, despite a policy requiring them to do so,” Perez wrote.
Among Boyce’s alleged actions that were swept under the rug were asking to see a female employee bend over to show her chest, questions about other employees’ sex lives and stalking of another employee.
Kahler’s lawsuit said she was told not to use the bathroom across from Boyce’s office because “that’s where nasty things happened.” It also says a bathroom with a shower was used as a “sex room.”
Boyce was ultimately fired by Delaware County last year and was charged with harassment and indecent assault. Charges remain pending.
The county faces Kahler’s lawsuit and another brought by Maille Russel Bonsall, a longtime DES policy who said Boyce “terrorized” and “mentally isolated her,” making her scared to report his behavior.
She alleges Boyce begged her to kiss him during a strange trip to a wooded area for a walk, then sexually assaulted her on a work trip to New York City.
