Sides continue battle in ex-Butler County magistrate’s lawsuit claiming religion led to her firing

Both sides in the case involving a former Butler County magistrate saying she was fired for being Jewish are asking a federal judge to decide in their favor.

Kimberly Edelstein filed a $1 million lawsuit against Judge Greg Stephens, Prosecutor Michael Gmoser and Assistant Prosecutor Dan Ferguson in May 2017, claiming Stephens fired her for wanting to take off eight high holy days and that all three men bad-mouthed her, preventing her from securing another job.

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U.S. District Court Judge Michael R. Barrett dismissed most of Edelstein’s claims already. Now the two sides have asked the judge for summary judgment — effectively ending the case because there is no “genuine issue of material fact” — on their behalf.

Edelstein claims the three men have essentially rendered her unemployable in the legal community here and statewide. She said every judge and lawyer knows that getting fired is a death knell in the profession.

“Plaintiff has, in effect, become a pariah in the legal community,” Edelstein wrote in her motion. “Plaintiff has been labeled incompetent to be a magistrate with this termination and was forced to commit the great sin of suing her employer and other lawyers.”

Stephens, Gmoser and Ferguson say the ex-magistrate has no proof of any of her claims. They say she is speculating on their intent and using “inadmissible gossip” as proof.

“Although this action has been pending for over two years, Edlestein has not adduced any evidence to support her claims that she was discriminated against, slandered and otherwise victimized by the three defendants,” their attorney Linda Woeber wrote.

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