A key whistleblower whose statements led to the indictment of Natrona County's former chief deputy coroner on drug charges has sued the county commission for wrongful termination and violating her civil rights, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court.

"[Anna Ray] ... alleges that her termination from her employment was in retaliation for Plaintiff's protected speech regarding [Gary] Hazen's theft of medication and her complaints of sexual harassment," according to the lawsuit filed by her attorneys, Sharon Rose of Evanston and Marilyn Filkins of Pinedale.

Rose was out of the country Friday afternoon. Filkins did not return a phone call seeking comment. Ray's phone did not have an answering machine, and she could not be reached for comment.

County Attorney Bill Knight did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Ray's lawsuit names the Natrona County Commission "as Supervising Agency" of the coroner's office.

However, the commission does not have the authority to oversee the operations and policies of county departments such as the coroner whose administrators are elected officials. The commission's influence is limited to setting the departmental budgets.

The commission tried to exercise that influence three years ago by eliminating funding for the chief deputy coroner's position, an action that some believe cost two commissioners their jobs in the November 2006 general election.

Ray's encounters with the chief deputy coroner began when she started work as an investigator on March 20, 2007, according to the lawsuit.

Hazen sexually harassed Ray by asking about her personal life, talked about his intimate affairs, and treated her more harshly than male employees, the lawsuit claims.

Ray soon learned Hazen was taking prescription medications from deceased persons.

In November and December 2007, she and another employee reported their concerns about harassment and drug thefts to then-Coroner Dr. Jim Thorpen, who did not listen or take action, the lawsuit alleges.

Ray then told local law enforcement, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, and then-County Attorney Eric Nelson, who repeated her concerns to the county commissioners in early 2008, according to the lawsuit.

"Upon learning from the County Attorney that Plaintiff had made complaints concerning him, including the complaint of sexual harassment, Hazen threatened Plaintiff for taking her complaints 'upstairs' and 'opening a can of worms,'" according to the lawsuit.

In late March 2008, Ray was reassigned to work in the morgue away from her co-workers, and was subjected to greater scrutiny and harassment from Hazen, according to the lawsuit. "Throughout these events the County Attorney and the County Commissioners were kept apprised of the retaliatory actions and the concerns of theft of medication, however, they too refused to take action."

She was fired on April 30, 2008.

On May 14, two Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents interviewed Ray, who discussed her experiences with Hazen in the DCI affidavit filed with Natrona County Circuit Court on Nov. 6.

Ray had documented his work, such as telling her to go to the homes of deceased people to retrieve controlled substances, but not to further investigate cases if the deceased didn't have any controlled substances.

Sometimes, the number of pills Hazen stored in a cabinet did not match discrepancies in logs, according to the affidavit.

"On one case that (she) worked, she documented many narcotics that she left in the cabinet for Hazen. In that case, after several days she and (a worker in the coroner's office) re-counted the pills and discovered an entire bottle of Morphine missing. From their research, they believed that the only medications that were ever unaccounted for were narcotics."

Ray also noted Hazen's fascination with the medications he retrieved during an investigation of a drug overdose. She remembers him saying, "'Do you know how much you could get on the street for these, and we're just going to flush them.'"

In her lawsuit, Ray notes Hazen's subsequent arrest and guilty plea to drug possession in July. As part of a plea agreement, Hazen would not serve jail time but would be placed on probation for 10 years. Judge Peter Arnold has not yet decided whether to accept the plea agreement.

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at tom.morton@trib.com.