Denver District Attorney Beth McCann is photographed at her office on Nov. 7, 2023. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
The Denver District Attorney’s Office has agreed to pay $7,500 to a former prosecutor who sued it for wage discrimination, ending a two-year-long dispute ahead of a trial in May.
Adrienne Greene sued the DA’s Office in March 2022, claiming she was paid less than male colleagues for the same work and punished for saying so. Greene worked there from 1996 to her resignation in 2022, rising to the role of senior chief deputy district attorney.
Green alleged that in 2018, her $150,000 salary was $29,000 less than that of a man with the same title and experience. In 2021, her $175,000 salary was $16,000 less, she said.
Jurors were initially scheduled to hear the case in October, but Greene was granted an 11th-hour continuance by Judge Eric Eliff after her attorneys came into possession of new evidence. A seven-day trial was then scheduled for May 20-28 in Denver District Court.
Until Tuesday, when lawyers for both sides told Eliff that they had reached a settlement. Their agreement, obtained by BusinessDen in a records request, requires the DA’s Office to pay Greene a lump sum of $7,500 in exchange for Greene dropping her lawsuit.
The settlement makes clear that the DA’s Office still “adamantly denies the allegations made in the lawsuit” and maintains it has not “engaged in any wrong against Greene.”
“We sharply disagreed with Ms. Greene’s claim,” District Attorney Beth McCann added in a statement. “However, in the interest of avoiding any disruption in my office and considerable legal fees over the next several months — fees that would have been paid with taxpayer dollars — it was clearly in the public interest to resolve this case for a small amount.”
Greene’s attorneys, Ben Lebsack and Sara Maeglin with the employment law firm Lowrey Parady Lebsack in Denver, did not answer requests for comment on the settlement.
The DA’s Office was represented in the case by Meghan Martinez and Sarah Nolan with the Martinez Law Group in Denver.
Since leaving the DA’s Office, Greene has been an adjunct law professor at the University of Colorado, her alma mater. She is teaching a course on trial advocacy this spring.
Denver District Attorney Beth McCann is photographed at her office on Nov. 7, 2023. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
The Denver District Attorney’s Office has agreed to pay $7,500 to a former prosecutor who sued it for wage discrimination, ending a two-year-long dispute ahead of a trial in May.
Adrienne Greene sued the DA’s Office in March 2022, claiming she was paid less than male colleagues for the same work and punished for saying so. Greene worked there from 1996 to her resignation in 2022, rising to the role of senior chief deputy district attorney.
Green alleged that in 2018, her $150,000 salary was $29,000 less than that of a man with the same title and experience. In 2021, her $175,000 salary was $16,000 less, she said.
Jurors were initially scheduled to hear the case in October, but Greene was granted an 11th-hour continuance by Judge Eric Eliff after her attorneys came into possession of new evidence. A seven-day trial was then scheduled for May 20-28 in Denver District Court.
Until Tuesday, when lawyers for both sides told Eliff that they had reached a settlement. Their agreement, obtained by BusinessDen in a records request, requires the DA’s Office to pay Greene a lump sum of $7,500 in exchange for Greene dropping her lawsuit.
The settlement makes clear that the DA’s Office still “adamantly denies the allegations made in the lawsuit” and maintains it has not “engaged in any wrong against Greene.”
“We sharply disagreed with Ms. Greene’s claim,” District Attorney Beth McCann added in a statement. “However, in the interest of avoiding any disruption in my office and considerable legal fees over the next several months — fees that would have been paid with taxpayer dollars — it was clearly in the public interest to resolve this case for a small amount.”
Greene’s attorneys, Ben Lebsack and Sara Maeglin with the employment law firm Lowrey Parady Lebsack in Denver, did not answer requests for comment on the settlement.
The DA’s Office was represented in the case by Meghan Martinez and Sarah Nolan with the Martinez Law Group in Denver.
Since leaving the DA’s Office, Greene has been an adjunct law professor at the University of Colorado, her alma mater. She is teaching a course on trial advocacy this spring.
