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true crime
Lawsuit: College Administrator Says She was Fired Because She was on Chemotherapy | Crime Alert 03.26.26
About this Episode
A woman in Georgia says she was pushed out and fired from Georgia State University while undergoing chemotherapy, and now she is fighting back in court.
A family in Alaska files a lawsuit claiming a woman froze to death after repeated 911 calls failed to bring timely help as she sat outside in subfreezing conditions.
Drew Nelson reports.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosts & Guests
Transcript
Crime alert, hourly update, breaking crime news now.
I'm Drew Nelson.
A woman in Georgia says she was pushed out and fired from Georgia State University
while undergoing chemotherapy and she is now fighting back in court.
The case centers on Cindy Hawthorne of Atlanta.
She was hired as a civil rights compliance investigator at Georgia State.
Just three weeks into that job, she was diagnosed with cancer.
One in three of us will have to deal with this because it's not okay.
That's Hawthorne on WSB.
She felt like skydiving without a parachute.
Hawthorne says when she first told her supervisors, they supported her.
She was allowed to work from home.
Deadlines were extended.
She said she even delayed surgery for a month to show commitment to the job.
She returned to work remotely.
She said she completed her assignments.
She said she received a good performance review.
But as chemotherapy and radiation took their toll, she asked for those accommodations
to continue.
She says that is when things changed.
She was placed on a 90 day performance improvement plan.
She says the university also brought in another employee to her department.
And he started kind of letting me know about, you know, meetings that management was having
without me, raises and offers that he was getting.
That employee laid it out for her.
He understood that I was being pushed out.
Hawthorne says she was fired in October of 2024.
That was less than a year after she was hired and diagnosed.
Her attorney tells WSB the new hire backed up her claims during an EEOC investigation.
He says she went out of her way to keep working through treatment.
Hawthorne says the experience leaves her feeling discarded.
The university system of Georgia is named in the lawsuit.
A spokesperson says they cannot comment because the case is pending.
More crime and justice news after this.
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This is the case of Alicia Lindsay.
She was 31.
She died February 8th of 2024 in Anchorage.
The medical examiner ruled the cause of death as hypothermia from cold exposure.
Nearly two years later, her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the
municipality of Anchorage along with dispatchers and police.
The complaint lays out a timeline that began the day before her death.
Lindsay went to Ted Stevens International Airport but never boarded her flight.
Airport police later drove her home.
That afternoon, she returned to the airport and eventually got a ride downtown.
The driver became concerned and called 911 after seeing her standing in the road.
Police made contact with her that day and let her go.
The next morning, just after 7am, a man called 911 from his home.
He reported a woman knocking on his door and sitting on the ground.
He said she appeared disoriented, was not speaking and looked unwell.
The dispatcher told him officers would be sent and could call back if anything changed.
About 30 minutes later, the man called back.
He said the woman was still there and he said she seemed to be crawling around the patio
on drugs or having some sort of medical emergency.
The couple gave her a blanket and hand-worners and told her help was coming.
Temperatures that morning were as low as 17 with snow.
The complaint says Lindsay was wearing only a light sweater, jeans and boots.
The lawsuit claims the dispatcher did not treat the situation as a medical emergency.
It says the focus was on whether the colors were safe and whether they could stay
separated from her. Police arrived at exactly 7.47am.
Officers found Lindsay on the ground.
They reported she was breathing but drifting in and out of consciousness.
Body camera audio captured her moaning and pain.
Emergency crews arrived about 20 minutes later.
They lifted her from the ground and moved her to an ambulance.
Minutes after that, an officer reported she had stopped breathing.
She was taken to Providence Hospital but died there.
The lawsuit claims help came too late and argues that if emergency medical services had been
dispatched to after the first 911 call, she could have received treatment sooner.
Every Blakely was just two when he disappeared on this day in 2009 in Maldon,
Washington. He was playing in the yard of his aunt's trailer.
Around 12.30 that afternoon while family members were busy moving stuff out of the home.
Within minutes, he was gone. More than 75 people joined the search effort.
Deputies focused on nearby Pine Creek that runs close to the property.
The creek was swollen and murky. Divers were unable to enter safely.
But one of Avery's slippers was discovered on the bank of the creek.
It matched what he had been wearing when he vanished.
Authorities say at the time there was no sign of foul play.
Investigators believed the boy may have wandered from the yard and fallen in the water.
The search was called off the next day. He was presumed dead.
But Avery's body was never found and the case remains open.
He is still listed as a missing child because his body was never recovered.
He's biracial white and Hispanic with brown hair and brown eyes.
He was about 2 feet 827 pounds at the time he disappeared.
Last scene wearing a blue sweatshirt with red sleeves,
gray sweatpants and slippers.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Whitman County Sheriff's Office at 509-397-6266.
For the latest crime and justice news, follow Crime Alert hourly update on your favorite podcast app.
With this crime alert, I'm Drew Nelson.
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From storm warnings to pollen levels, write at your fingertips,
get the fastest local alerts and comprehensive 10-day forecasts wherever you are.
It's hyper-local real-time customizable alerts.
Make sure the weather never takes you by surprise so you can plan every day with confidence.
Download the free weather bug app from the app store today and start getting accurate weather forecasts 24-7.
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