A former guard from a Napa County jailhouse claims he was driven out of his job and ended up in a mental hospital after suffering relentless antigay harassment from colleagues and supervisors. But here’s the real kicker: he isn’t even gay.
41-year-old Dante Michelucci worked as a correctional officer for the Napa County from 2007 until April 2018. Despite identifying as straight and being married to a woman, Michelucci claims he was the targets of homophobic abuse at the hands of his colleagues.
The trouble started about a year ago, ten years after Michelucci started working for the county, when one day his coworkers “decided he was gay” and started calling him antigay slurs.
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Over the months, the alleged harassment escalated. Michelucci’s locker became “littered” with photoshopped pictures of him at Pride parades. He was also frequently asked how many blowjobs he had performed that day and insulted about his appearance.
When Michelucci reported the abuse to supervisors, the lawsuit reads, “he was labeled a snitch, and his coffee cup (was) spit into.” He was also “mocked” for complaining about being bullied and told the harassment was a sign that his colleagues “liked him.”
“The hostile work environment became so pervasive that (Michelucci) was hospitalized” with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression, the suit continues.
He also claims to have suffered from a bout of Bell’s Palsy, a form of temporary facial paralysis caused by damage or trauma.
“He had a breakdown,” Michelucci’s attorney, David Poore, says.
In April, Michelucci was placed on medical leave. He’s now suing in federal court last in San Francisco, where he is seeking unspecified damages, including punitive damages.
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Chrisk
Wow. Second time in 2 weeks San Francisco is in the news for this kind of BS. Who knew San Francisco was more homophobic then the deep south now.
IWantAFullBeard
When did Napa Valley and San Francisco become the same place? That is like saying Boston and NYC are the same city. How stupid of you.
Chrisk
@ IWantAFullBeard. My mistake and I actually corrected myself down below. Maybe I should have added a correction tag to it.
Lacuevaman
Miss K, sometimes YOU should just keep quite
Chrisk
What an irony of scenes. This is not what I think of when it comes to Napa Valley. Jeez.
russdog
Napa Valley is far from San Francisco in distance and values. It’s rural with a wide income disparity; wealthy landowners and wine companies, working class and small business owners. The areas outside of San Francisco tend toward rural exclusive wealthy/rural low income working class conservative. You can go from George Lucas’ secluded neighborhood to poor areas where pot and meth is the local economy in just a few miles.
Chrisk
Actually it’s only about an hour away. I just checked the Google. The way you described it though I guess it might as well be a long ways away.
Billy Budd
The same thing happened to me in 1997 when I worked at Arthur Andersen Consulting. I was called a fagg*t everyday all the time, among many other gay slurs. My boss created parodies of songs saying that I was gay in the lyrics. They even shortened my name, “figueiredo” and gave me a nickname of “Fi-gay”. On my birthday my boss took me to a whorehouse instead of to a restaurant as was the plan, and left me at the door of the whorehouse. He slipped an advertisement of a “massage” parlor under my hotel room door. After a few months of this, I had a nervous breakdown, and suffered from PTSD and depresssion for years. I did not sue them, but I should have done it.
Kangol
Are you sure the statue of limitations has run out, because it sounds like you’d have a spectacular lawsuit on your hands. You’d be able to buy an estate in Brazil with what you’d receive from even a semi-competent US judge and jury.
Billy Budd
Kangol, it happpened here in Brazil, at a local office of the american firm, in Sao Paulo. I would have won the case but it would have taken many years until I got the cash. I should have sued. I made a mistake, but now it is too late. The manager now works for another firm and AA consulting does not exist anymore. It has merged with Delloite Touche-Tohmatsu after the Enron scandal.
Kangol
Billy Budd, thanks for your reply. I also understand not suing; it can be more trouble than it’s worth, and depending upon the case, especially in the past vs. today, there might be no guarantee you’d win, even with evidence backing you up. Also, and this goes to what’s reported on here a lot, when a person is sexually harassed (or harassed and bullied in school, at work, etc.), the first response often isn’t the obvious one of speaking out and suing, for a variety of reasons. Nowadays in the US, at least, when it comes to sexual harassment, though, judges and juries do seem to take cases more seriously.
Tucker2
My face would be paralyzed after spending some time with him
calpoidog
To be clear, the employee doesn’t seem to claim he suffered as a result of being called “gay” as the headline suggests…rather, he is complaining about pervasive harassment by his co-workers which was not addressed by his employer.
@Chrisk, Napa is about 45 minutes north of San Francisco, (almost) completely redneck and in no way shape or form resembles SF culturally.
DHT
I worked for an Not For Profit in Atlanta, I was out and was continually harassed by some of my coworkers. My manager’s only response was to advise me to not be gay anymore. I gave my notice when the harassment turned physical, they in turn fired me that day.
mateoprieto
This is so sick. The LGBTQ community in my hometown of Napa isn’t a joke. We’re judged and neglected like chopped liver. I once had been in this Jail before and had been sexually harassed by an employee of the County Jail. And when I brought it one to the first CO he ignored me and had the demeanor like I had made it up. I took to my gut feeling and mentioned it to a the sherif who addressed it immediately and they ended up putting me on House arrest for the remainder of my time due. ***don’t drink & drive***
Anyways, nothing was ever done to the employee who was telling me he was going to rape me once I got out of jail. He still works there too.
The same thing with the NAPA COUNTY probation officer I had from once had solicited nudes through social media & when I mentioned it to the chief of probation they only replaced him and assigned me to another officer. THE GUY STILL WORKS FOR THEM. Nothing happened.
This county doesn’t welcome any controversial issues and from my experiences I feel as if I’ve been brushed under a rug and is depressing.
I shared this because I want your feedback. Thank you
StraightnNarrow
it’s truly unfortunate for a straight guy to be perceived as gay. He needs to look himself in the mirror and fix his demeanor.
Lacuevaman
where did you come from… you new to queerty? just to let you know, i prefer them Curved(up)nThick…
nitejonboy
Facial paralysis ? So much so he couldn’t get a dick into his mouth!