‘None of this had to happen’: Firefighter who got $1.3M after abuse says KCFD failed her

The Kansas City Council approved a $1.3 million settlement Tuesday afternoon for a 61-year-old Kansas City firefighter and paramedic who filed multiple suits against the department after years of being harassed by colleagues because of her age, gender and her identity as a lesbian. It’s the largest settlement in city history for a discrimination case involving the fire department.

Rebecca Reynolds filed multiple lawsuits against the city in the past year or so. As part of the settlement, she agreed to dismiss two other pending suits and to resign from the fire department. Reynolds will also abstain from filing a third lawsuit addressing the most recent set of harassment claims, according to a Thursday news release from her attorney Bert Braud of the Popham Law Firm.

But despite the settlement from the city, Braud said in the statement that no disciplinary action was taken against any colleagues in the KCFD or in other city departments that were involved in investigating Reynolds’ complaints.

“Ms. Reynolds is especially troubled by the lack of accountability,” he wrote. “No one was held responsible and nothing has changed.”

Rebecca Reynolds joined the Kansas City fire department in 2003 at the age of 40. She says that in the years since, she was abused and mistreated primarily by male colleagues, one of whom allegedly peed on her personal belongings while she was out of her office.

The department has long been accused of bias and favoritism in its hiring and promotion practices, as well as fostering a hostile work environment for those not part of the white, male demographic group that has shaped the department’s culture for many decades, according to a report the city commissioned after The Star published a series of articles in 2020 about racism and sexism within the KCFD .

According to court documents, Reynolds alleges that while she worked at multiple fire stations throughout Kansas City, male colleagues repeatedly questioned her decisions, made disparaging comments about her age and sexuality and used foul language to yell at her in front of patients and residents.

When she complained about the abuse from her colleagues, instead of taking disciplinary action, Braud said department colleagues retaliated against Reynolds.

At various points, Braud wrote, Reynolds was allegedly told to “shut the (expletive) up”, that she was “not normal” due to being a lesbian and that she was only a lesbian because she ‘could not find the right man.’

‘“There’s no way she would have been yelled at and treated the way she was if she were a man,” Braud said.

In the most notable incident, Kansas City firefighter Pleaze Robinson III was arrested for allegedly urinating on Reynolds’ belongings on September 10, 2023. She found $3,000 worth of personal belongings covered in urine, including a CD player, a boogie board and medic training books.

Robinson was charged the next day with first degree harassment and first degree property damage after the urine was found to be a match with his DNA. The Missouri Commission on Human Rights recently granted permission f or Reynolds to sue the city over the urination incident, according to Braud.

Robinson was previously charged with third-degree assault in 2019 after allegedly body-slamming a woman to the pavement during a road rage incident, then punching her more than 30 times. At that point, he pled guilty and was put on probation but kept his job with KCFD. He is one of two colleagues who Reynolds most frequently ran up against, according to Braud.

As he awaits trial, Robinson is currently still on the fire department’s payroll, Braud wrote.

Reynolds’ second lawsuit and third pending lawsuit were filed in 2023 and 2024, respectively .They included claims by Reynolds that coworkers posted inappropriate cartoons on a refrigerator in a communal area, and that she suffered a knee injury after a male coworker allegedly tripped her on purpose.

After the injury, a colleague allegedly told Reynolds that she was an “ongoing concern” to the station, in part because she was a woman — or, as the colleague allegedly put it, that she “sat down to pee,” Braud said.

Reynolds was initially reluctant to resign as part of the settlement, Braud said.

“I have a valuable skill set that benefits my community and I leave proud of the job I did,” Reynold said in the Thursday statement.

“None of this had to happen. Ms. Reynolds was let down by the KCFD chain of command, the city’s internal EEO office, and the HR department. Our community deserves better,” Braud said. “It is our hope that the department will start doing the right thing.”

Between 2000 and 2020, legal settlements with fire department employees cost taxpayers $2.5 million, a Star investigation found in 2020. In the past two years, total fire department employee settlements have totaled $2.8 million , including Reynolds’ payout.

Previous reporting by The Star’s Mike Hendricks, Noelle Alviz-Gransee and Glenn Rice was used in this article.