EAST ST. LOUIS – A fired St. Clair County Intergovernmental Grants Department worker has until Aug. 24 to amend her complaint pending in federal court in East St. Louis.
U.S. District Judge David Herndon on Aug. 9 ordered Roshanda Peppers to file a more definite statement in her suit claiming she was terminated for speaking out about discrimination by former supervisors.
Her suit names St. Clair County, Debra Moore and Frank Bergmann as defendants.
Herndon cited a federal law that stipulates a “party may move for a more definite statement of a pleading to which a responsive pleading is allowed but which is so vague or ambiguous that the party cannot reasonably prepare a response.”
All three defendants filed motions in district court on June 29, seeking a more definite statement spelling out what each of them is being accused of by Peppers.
According to media reports on Peppers allegations, the U.S. Department of Labor in 2013 started investigating claims that St. Clair County employees discriminated against disabled residents and ultimately punished whistle-blowers who spoke out about the alleged acts.
The St. Clair County grants department oversees federal funds meant to provide job placement assistance and worker training in St. Clair, Monroe, Washington, Randolph and Clinton counties.