A Big Island prison warden who was fired almost a decade ago over allegations of sexual harassment and workplace discrimination is entitled to get her old job back under a court decision last week that could cost state taxpayers $1 million or more.

The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed a 2017 decision by the Merit Appeals Board that found Kulani Correctional Facility Warden Ruth Forbes should have been suspended for 60 days instead of being fired.

That means Forbes, who was terminated in late 2015, is owed almost 10 years of back pay as well as compensation for lost retirement, vacation and sick leave benefits, according to her lawyer Ted Hong. He said that could total $1 million or more.

Hong blamed the state for dragging the dispute out with appeals even though Forbes was prepared years ago to accept the two-month suspension and move on. He said taxpayers should be angry about the outcome of the case.

Continuing the litigation “was a decision by the Department of Public Safety at that time because there was this personality conflict between the department director and Ruth Forbes that they decided to just get rid of her,” Hong said.

“They were just going to make her swim upstream no matter what it took because they realized by the time this case gets resolved, they’ll no longer be around, and they don’t have to pay the bill.”

Among the allegations that led to her firing were claims Forbes had grabbed a subordinate’s penis, and had referred to an African American co-worker as “Monkey,” “Planet of the Apes,” and “That black bastard.” Hong said those claims were false.

Forbes was going through a divorce and a “very tough time in her personal life” in 2015, Hong said, and she mistakenly relied on her co-workers and subordinates as “kind of a support group.”

“She thought of them as her friends. They actually weren’t. They were recording her secretly, they were making notes and recording her,” he said. “They tried to set her up.”

Forbes sued the state Department of Public Safety and former DPS Director Nolan Espinda in 2016 — a year after she was fired — alleging she was a victim of sex discrimination by the department and Espinda. Espinda died in 2022.

The lawsuit also targeted three former Kulani staff members, alleging they had defamed Forbes by falsely accusing her of theft, ethics code violations, sexual harassment and other misconduct.

The Hawaiʻi Merit Board of Appeals concluded in 2017 that there was credible evidence to support 21 of the workplace charges against Forbes including sexual harassment of a former employee, but no evidence to support 17 other allegations.

The appeals board then overruled the decision by the department to fire Forbes, concluding instead that a 60-day suspension was the appropriate punishment. It ordered that Forbes be reinstated as warden.

The state appealed that decision to the Circuit Court, arguing the Merit Board of Appeals had overstepped its authority by reversing the decision to fire Forbes. The court agreed, but Forbes appealed that decision to the Intermediate Courts of Appeals, where she lost again.

She was finally successful in reversing her firing with her appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The court said in its decision, “The plain language of the statute unequivocally grants the MAB the authority to ‘modify’ an employer’s disciplinary action if the MAB finds modification is required under the circumstances and is considered just.”

“As the Supreme Court pointed out and everybody knew, the Merit Appeals Board was the appropriate venue to make the decision” on how Forbes was to be punished, Hong said.

Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Justice Lisa Ginoza filed a sharp dissent to the court’s decision, arguing that given the “extensive and serious” 21 charges the Merit Appeals Board substantiated, the board should have affirmed Forbes’ firing.

Ginoza said the record in the case showed “Forbes created a hostile and offensive working environment by discriminating against, sexually harassing, and harassing multiple employees under her supervision. This included the highly improper physical conduct of grabbing the penis of someone she supervised.”

Rosemarie Bernardo, public information officer for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in a written statement the department is reviewing the high court’s decision and had no comment.

Forbes enjoyed being warden and wants her old job back, Hong said.

On the other hand, “if the employer and my client want to negotiate something different, we can probably negotiate something different. But as of right now, she wants to go back, and the order from the Merit Appeals Board says she has to go back.”

Hong said he agreed to pause the proceedings in Forbes’ defamation lawsuit until the appeal was resolved, but now plans to restart that case.

Read the decision: