By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A Shelby County judge has denied a request to dismiss a lawsuit against the Shelby County Department of Human Resources claiming a former DHR employee forced a female victim to perform sex acts on him.

The lawsuit was filed by G. Courtney French of the Fuston, Petway and French law firm on behalf of a female DHR client. The lawsuit names 30-year-old Pelham resident and former DHR worker Brandon Daniel, Shelby County DHR supervisor Rasheda Gulley and Shelby County DHR Director Kim Mashego as defendants.

In the lawsuit, the woman claims Daniel visited her home in Alabaster on Aug. 20, 2013, without an appointment and “demanded that the plaintiff allow him to ‘inspect the house.’”

The lawsuit claims Daniel returned to the woman’s house the next day and “demanded that the plaintiff allow him to specifically ‘inspect the bedroom.’”

Daniel then allegedly closed the bedroom door, began kissing the woman’s neck and “demanded that the plaintiff offer him ‘something in return for not taking her kids,’” the lawsuit alleged. Daniel then forced the woman to perform sex acts on him, the lawsuit claims.

The suit also claims Gulley and Mashego “failed to properly hire, train and supervise” Daniel, and claimed they “negligently and wantonly allowed Daniel … to act beyond his authority or under a mistaken interpretation of the law as a DHR worker.”

In September 2014, Gulley and Mashego requested Judge Hewitt Conwill to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming Daniel was “acting outside the line and scope of his employment” during the alleged incident.

In early November 2014, Conwill denied the defendants’ request to dismiss the lawsuit. The suit is now scheduled for a March 13 hearing at the Shelby County Courthouse at 7 a.m.

In a September 2014 motion filed in Shelby County Civil Court, Daniel, who also is facing felony criminal charges in the alleged incident, denied the allegations against him.