IT’S A STORY to which DMH officials are sticking. Chinappi, the department’s spokesperson, refused to answer the Phoenix’s questions about the McGarry case. "It’s a personnel matter and is in litigation," she says. But the DMH response filed with MCAD, drafted by Wagner, asserts that McGarry was fired "solely on the basis of poor work performance during her probationary period."

After she filed her initial complaint in November 2000, her DMH supervisors countered with several other allegations, suggesting that she was an even worse employee than previously indicated. In the DMH response, Wagner’s allegation that McGarry "exhibited an attitude that she was not amenable to supervision" echoes her August 25, 2000, termination letter. But he puts forth another reason for McGarry’s discharge: she was fired because "she did not appear competent in some fundamental cooking skills." By example, Wagner claims McGarry had trouble operating the food carts. Once, as she was rolling a cart full of desserts across the kitchen, she spilled food on the floor. He adds that she had problems using the can opener, the oven, and the stirring device for large kettles. Moreover, in court depositions conducted last spring, Levesque offered yet another basis for McGarry’s dismissal: "unprofessional behavior." When asked to elaborate, Levesque said, "Leaving the job early." She continued, "She would cry a lot at work.... She also wore the same outfit all the time, a blue shirt that didn’t look like it had been washed." (McGarry happens to have five blue shirts that she says she made a point to wear to work.)

To McGarry, these accusations sound specious at best. "The state is grasping at straws," she says. "It’s like they’re looking for anything and everything to get on me." Clifford puts it more succinctly: "Isn’t it amazing the allegations keep piling up? It’s obvious they’re made up."

Much of the evidence in this case seems to favor McGarry. For one thing, the DMH portrait of her as a sloppy, inept, and insubordinate employee stands in sharp contrast to her previous employers’ recollections. In referral after referral, former bosses gushed over her, calling her "reliable," "hard-working," "conscientious," and "tirelessly attentive." One past employer, named Dean Corcoran, whose Brockton deli went under several years ago, says, "I would have Linda on my staff again in an instant!"

This good-worker profile continued even after McGarry became aware of the disparaging comments at Taunton State Hospital. On June 30, 2000, for example, she received nothing but "satisfactory" marks — the highest grade possible — on an evaluation consisting of four task categories. The review, signed by Levesque, failed to mention a single area where McGarry needed improvement. Likewise, in the MCAD depositions and affidavits, three of McGarry’s former hospital co-workers characterized her performance up until the day that she lost her job as "good, if not excellent."

One seasoned cook, named Stephen Gonsalves, attested in his deposition: "She was a really nice worker. She, when she went there, she had a bucket of water, made sure that whatever she did, she cleaned up after herself. She was an excellent worker and no complaints about her." Another cook, Michael Reams, agreed, "She did a good job.... I never saw anything wrong."

At the same time, co-workers have charged in court documents that Tex Holloway, the head cook, had appeared particularly hard on McGarry. When asked about Holloway’s demeanor toward McGarry, Reams, in his deposition, replied: "At times he could be tough." Reams added, "One time I do recall ... I don’t know even what it was that had happened — but when I walked towards the back, he was yelling at her." He testified that, among the cooks, Holloway would yell only at McGarry.

Equally important, legal filings suggest that McGarry’s sexual orientation became grist for the rumor mill almost as soon as she set foot in the hospital’s kitchen. In depositions, for instance, Reams explains that offensive statements about McGarry circulated even before her first day: "I did hear people talk ... after she had done a walk through the kitchen, saying she’s probably a lesbian," he said, without specifically identifying co-workers. "I heard people say she’s a dyke." Gonsalves, too, maintains that McGarry’s homosexuality was fodder for workplace gossip. According to his deposition, "basically she was black-marked before she came into the kitchen. She already had a title, saying she was a lesbian.... The way I felt, that was bad."

Today, after all that has come out in the depositions, McGarry and her lawyer are convinced that the DMH got rid of her because she’s a lesbian. Her sexual orientation amounted to what Clifford calls "a distraction and a sore spot" among some of her colleagues. Why else, he argues, would people warn each other not to associate with her? Why else would they label her a dyke? Why else would they presume any contact she had with another woman was sexual? McGarry argues in her MCAD complaint that the "overall culture" of a kitchen workforce consisting largely of low-skilled and low-educated Catholic and Portuguese immigrants — some of whom require a translator for extended conversation — is one where "gay individuals do not quite fit in." And given that two top supervisors in legal statements reported that only one other kitchen worker has been fired in the past 10 years, she may have a point. According to McGarry, both she and the other fired worker were gay. In any case, McGarry, who was raised Catholic, sees the issues in terms of a culture clash: "The workers who were most upset about me were the older, Portuguese women. It’s hard not to wonder if culture played a role." Perhaps culture did, but even cultural patterns are often varied and highly nuanced.

According to one recent academic study, the Portuguese-American community, which constitutes nearly 50 percent of Taunton’s population, is believed to be largely conservative. The study attributes such assumptions about the group to its near-universal connection to the Catholic Church, which does not condone homosexual relations. But, like many long-held presumptions, this isn’t necessarily the case.

Clyde Barrow, a policy-studies professor at UMass Dartmouth, authored the 2000 study of the Portuguese-American community, including the residents of Taunton. Attitudes toward gays and lesbians among what he calls "US-born Portuguese" rival those common in any other socially liberal Massachusetts city, including Boston and Cambridge, he says. Barrow found that as many as 60 percent of US-born Portuguese embrace gay marriage. They seem, he adds "surprisingly tolerant" of gays and lesbians.

Anecdotal evidence bears out that finding. Frank Sousa, who directs the Center for Portuguese Studies at UMass Dartmouth, notes that Portuguese-Americans from Taunton to New Bedford to Fall River have long backed two openly gay US congressmen — first Gary Studds, and now Barney Frank. Says Sousa, "I deal with the community regularly, and homosexuality doesn’t appear to be that big a deal." Onesimo Almeida, a Portuguese-studies professor at Brown University, concurs. "There is a tradition of tolerance. Most Portuguese in Taunton come from the island Terceira, where they’re open to homosexuality," he says, although he acknowledges the prevailing approach is to "be silent and don’t make a big fuss about it."

Still, this isn’t to say that all Portuguese-Americans accept homosexuals. According to Barrow’s 2000 survey, there’s a striking and significant difference between the Portuguese who were born in this country and those who immigrated here. Only 25 percent of "foreign-born Portuguese" support gay marriage. Says Barrow, "There’s a substantial pocket who view homosexuality as morally wrong."

Of course, we’ll probably never know whether McGarry bumped up against such sentiments at Taunton State Hospital. But one thing is certain: the DMH failed to respond properly to what DMH attorney Wagner calls "questionable co-worker gossip." It’s true that the agency did right by contacting an affirmative-action representative. Ultimately, though, Tanner proved ineffective. Although she instructed McGarry’s colleagues to stop the whispers, no one was reprimanded when they began again. No one was disciplined when the gossip persisted. Rather than demand tolerance from the staff, DMH officials turned around and placed the burden on McGarry.

"The Commonwealth said, ‘You’re the distraction. Don’t hang around women,’" observes Clifford, McGarry’s lawyer. In short, officials had it backwards. As a result, they managed to let the insidious talk fester until the situation spiraled out of control. "They took the easy way out," Clifford maintains. "They figured it’s easier to get rid of the problem by getting rid of Linda than by training others." McGarry concurs: "[Levesque] knew she had to do something, but didn’t know what. They just neglected the problem until it erupted."

For now, then, McGarry must hold out hope that she’ll have the chance to confront the DMH’s allegations before MCAD, which expects to resolve her case within six months. For her, the complaint does not come down to money. Nor does it come down to recovering her old post at Taunton State Hospital. What she seeks is nothing less than vindication.

"Not a day goes by that I don’t think about it," McGarry says. "I know I’m a hard worker. I know I give 110 percent." Despite this, however, she must live with a black mark on her employment record — figuratively and literally. Because the Commonwealth fired her, she cannot apply for another state position for seven years. "It’s like I’m doing time for a crime I didn’t commit," she says. "Why should I have to suffer?"

As she talks, her eyes well up with tears. She keeps returning to what she regards as the most bitter irony in her case: that she was hired for her exceptional cooking skills — and then purportedly fired for culinary incompetence. "I didn’t just lose my job," McGarry says. "I lost my pride, my dignity, and my sense of self-worth."

Kristen Lombardi can be reached at klombardi[a]phx.com

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