SAN FRANCISCO — A federal magistrate judge has granted the government's motion to require an independent mental examination of Allison Snipes in a Title VII employment discrimination case. U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson filed the order in the Northern District of California last month.
The government had asked the court to force Snipes to undergo the exam by claiming she put her mental condition "in controversy" by stating she suffered $1 million in damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Snipes opposed.
In this lawsuit, Snipes accused her former supervisor at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Elizabeth Turner-Nichols, saying she often expressed to Snipes her contempt for people of faith who don't follow the religious beliefs they supposedly hold. Snipes grew up a member of the Pentecostal faith. She considers church and family the most important part of her life.
Snipes said Turner-Nichols found out she was having a romantic relationship with a man, which is a violation of the strict Pentecostal rules, and brought Snipes into her office where she was ordered to call her parents and tell them the intimate details of her relationship. Snipes said she suffered mental and psychological injuries as a result of the phone call and felt her privacy was violated, she was discriminated against on the basis of religion and sex, and that Turner-Nichols intentionally caused her emotional distress.
Hixson ruled Snipes failed to show that the examiners shouldn't be able to conduct their own analysis. He ordered she show up alone, without her attorneys or anyone else, and partake in the psychological testing by Dr. Amanda Gregory and a psychiatric examination by Dr. Renee Binder, both of whom are represented by the government. He also ordered the contents of the reports, not including the materials protected by trade secret law and ethical obligations, that result from the exams to be given to Snipes' attorneys.