A Delaware County worker who reported sexual abuse by her boss says she was placed on leave for speaking out

Maille Russel Bonsall filed a lawsuit in October saying her former boss, Tim Boyce, repeatedly kissed, grabbed and groped her, and masturbated in front of her in his office after she began working with him in 2019.

Boyce, the former head of Delaware County’s Department of Emergency Services and a fixture in county politics, was fired in May after being charged with indecent assault and related crimes for sexually harassing two other women in the office, and after Bonsall filed a report about her alleged abuse with the state Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

But since Boyce’s departure, Bonsall said, she has faced retaliation from his successors.

Work that previously fell to her as an assistant 911 coordinator was diverted to others, Bonsall said. She was locked out of systems she relied on to complete her job, she said, and a top administrator in the department screamed at her over a minor clerical error in late December, telling her the mistake was going to cost him his job.

Bonsall said she emailed the county’s human relations director, telling her she felt intimidated and unsafe. Days later, she was placed on administrative leave, with no scheduled return date.

The Morton resident said in a recent interview that she can’t help but feel that she is being targeted for complaining about her alleged abuser.

“There were reasons I didn’t speak up before,” she said. “People are so afraid of retaliation there and everyone being mad at you for being ‘a rat’ and going against them.”

County officials declined to comment, citing the pending civil litigation and the confidentiality of personnel matters.

In a statement, a county spokesperson said they are conducting an internal investigation into the matter.

“We are committed to fostering a safe, welcoming, and inclusive workplace, and take any allegations of misconduct seriously,” the statement said.

Bonsall’s attorney, Mark Schwartz, said the county’s response to her complaint defied the usual conventions for handling reports of workplace retaliation.

“When you sue an entity and you claim retaliation, that entity or employer tends to behave going forward,” he said.

Bonsall’s leave could have a “chilling effect” on her colleagues, he said, since it started so soon after she complained about feeling unsafe and intimidated at work.

» READ MORE: Woman allegedly groped by former Delco official said he made her feel like a ‘piece of meat’

Schwartz — who also represents Jacqueline Kahler, Boyce’s former assistant and the alleged victim in one of his pending criminal cases — said he has repeatedly asked the county solicitor to open an investigation into conduct of the senior leadership at the county’s Department of Emergency Services.

In lawsuits filed on behalf of Kahler and Bonsall, Schwartz has said county leaders were aware of Boyce’s misconduct and had long turned a blind eye to it. Their inaction, he wrote in court filings, created a culture that discouraged people from coming forward to complain.

Bonsall said she reported what she experienced, in part, because she values her job and her coworkers, and wants them to feel safe.

“There are a lot of hardworking people there that are good people who are in the same toxic environment, where if you stand up for yourself, you know you’re gonna pay for it,” she said. “So I just want to see that that place is a professional organization with structure that treats people fairly.”