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Bias suit against state hits court today By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ A former trainee of the Oregon Department of Adult and Family Services is suing the state for $1.45 million because of alleged discrimination she suffered while working at the Grants Pass office. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Medford, Aurora Duran further alleges that she was unjustly discriminated against when she applied for three available positions and was turned down for each one. State officials deny the allegations, charging that Duran quit her job and then asked a former trainer to support her discrimination claims. The court will hear the case starting at 9 a.m. today in the courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge John Cooney. Court papers filed by the plaintiff's attorney, David Longood of Eugene, state that AFS employees Darcy Turner and Gail Bagwell did not want Duran working for AFS and complained about her to her superior. Turner allegedly mocked Duran's Mexican accent by screaming in her face, "What? What? What?" while pretending not to understand her. She's also alleged to have told another employee, "I'll make sure she isn't hired." Bagwell and Turner are alleged to have persuaded fellow employee Jean Peters to state that Duran wasn't performing adequately. Peters later recanted that statement and wrote a letter to Duran expressing her regret, the plaintiff claims. The plaintiff also alleges that after she complained, AFS employees sent a letter to state Bureau of Labor and Industries investigators stating that she had failed a filing test, and later reversed themselves in signed depositions taken for the case, acknowledging she had passed the test with a score of 100 percent. The state plans to call several minority employees of AFS, among others, to refute Duran's claims of discrimination. Oregon National Guard Capt. Ramon Angelucci, Duran's first trainer at AFS, is to testify that he never witnessed any rudeness, disrespect, or evidence of discrimination against Duran, who did well with the basic office training he gave her. Angelucci also is expected to testify that after Duran quit in January 1996, she contacted him to support her claims that she had been discriminated against and had been promised a permanent position. He refused because he knew these claims to be false, court papers state. Ester Barba, of the AFS Family Resource Center in Grants Pass, will testify that she never heard anyone speak ill of Duran. On the contrary, Barba says Duran made accusations against John Briscoe, a food stamp manager, whom Barba knew to be a highly effective, empathetic worker with Hispanics. He speaks Spanish fluently and has a Colombian wife. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA