The lawyer representing a former Orangeville Police officer who is suing the force over alleged harassment says he hopes the matter will be quickly settled out of court through mediation.

A statement of claim served on the police force on August 16 seeks $2.5 million in damages for the plaintiff, Sean Taylor-Cole.

Existence of the lawsuit was disclosed last Thursday in a Toronto Star article which quoted the plaintiff's counsel, Toronto lawyer Gary Clewley, as saying he hoped that the Orangeville Police Services Board "will step up and remedy this situation."

In an e-mail to this reporter on Saturday, he clarified the remark, saying, "I would like the matter dealt with expeditiously because it is in the interests of everyone to do so.

"You know what a jury is likely to make of this, and the Service does not need a black eye."

A former Crown prosecutor, Mr. Clewley said his client "is under the care of doctors and she does not need the added stress. However, she is determined to seek justice."

Advised that the town has retained a lawyer in the Waterloo office of Hicks Morley, he indicated he would have preferred to see a local lawyer acting for the defendants instead of a law firm that specializes in litigating on behalf of employers.

"This is a community problem and if it could be mediated by someone who is part of the community I would welcome it."

In addition to the police services board, the statement of claim names as individual defendants Acting Chief Wayne Davis, former chief Rodney Freeman and officers Chris Dryden and Dan Maloney, who at the time of the alleged harassment were both sergeants.

The statement alleges that while Ms. Taylor-Cole, now 45, was on the force she was "the victim of systemic harassment and gender discrimination" at the hands of the two sergeants and that while Chief Freeman and Inspector Davis knew about the treatment in question, they "failed in their duty to protect and later sought to excuse and cover up their behaviour towards the plaintiff."

A resident of Hillsburgh, the plaintiff joined the Orangeville force in April 2003. She took a leave of absence when her husband became terminally ill with cancer and died later in 2003.

The alleged harassment took place following her return to work in April 2004, when she was assigned to a platoon supervised by Sgt. Dryden.

The statement of claim includes allegations that the sergeant "micromanaged her work performance and police reports" and did so "out of malice. ... No other officer on the same platoon was subjected to this treatment or to such a degree."

The statement says the treatment led to her becoming openly apprehensive and crying for no apparent reason.

Later, when she was transferred to a new platoon, Sgt. Maloney had become one of her supervisors. The statement alleges that he was openly critical of her work in front of other officers, and that at one point when she had fallen ill he had refused to let her go home.

The statement alleges that as a result of the harassment and the failure of the police services board, Chief Freeman and Insp. Davis to deal with it, the plaintiff has suffered a loss of income and "severe physical and mental injuries." It says she is currently on long-term disability, suffers from chronic nose bleeds and skin rashes, migraine headaches and palpitations, ulcers, sleeplessness and severe depression, "suicidal ideation," anxiety, nervousness and irritability, mood disorders, insomnia, nightmares and flashbacks.

The defendants have declined to comment on the allegations beyond promising that they will all be addressed in a statement of defence.