The stepmother of former Atlanta Police officer Garrett Rolfe, who was fired and charged in the death of Rayshard Brooks, claimed in June that she was fired from her company because of the incident. The company, however, has filed a lawsuit against her alleging that an entirely different set of circumstances led to her termination at the company.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson first reported on Melissa Rolfe’s termination from Equity Prime Mortgage (EPM) in Atlanta back in June. The company released a statement the next day that strongly disputed what had been reported.
“According to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to this program, Rolfe was promised that her job was safe, but today she was told, ‘We have to terminate our relationship with you,’” Carlson said. “No other explanation was offered and honestly no other explanation was needed. It was obvious what happened.”
Melissa Rolfe appeared on Carlson’s show several days later where she claimed that the firing was “a political move.”
“When I would speak with my direct manager and with the president, I was being assured that everything was fine in the office, continually through the phone calls and text messages that I was receiving,” Rolfe said. “Everything’s fine. My job was fine. Don’t worry about it. We’re not getting any negative feedback. So I was very surprised at how I was able to create a hostile work environment. I hadn’t been back.”
EPM filed a lawsuit against Melissa Rolfe on Wednesday, alleging that she made false statements about the company. The lawsuit also lists a Republican congressional candidate in the state.
“We were targeted with death threats, hate mail, and a boycott because of a national media firestorm based on statements by Marjorie Greene’s campaign and Melissa Rolfe,” Equity Prime Mortgage CEO Eddy Perez said in a statement. “We are committed to setting the record straight and defending our good name.”
The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County, claims that Melissa Rolfe “repeatedly violated company policy and created an uncomfortable and hostile working environment.”
“Although Rolfe had been repeatedly reprimanded and was notified—the day before her stepson shot Rayshard Brooks—that she was under investigation because of multiple complaints against her, she joined forces with Marjorie Taylor Greene and her Congressional campaign to launch a national media firestorm, which included televised appearances on The Glenn Beck Program and Tucker Carlson Tonight, social media posts, and speeches, all to peddle the false narrative that Rolfe had done nothing wrong and that EPM had fired her for fighting for her stepson and being his stepmom,” the lawsuit alleges. “The smear campaign mobilized a furious social media mob and prompted death threats, a boycott, and enormous reputational and financial harm to EPM.”
The company outlined the following accusations against Melissa Rolfe:
- In January 2020, Melissa Rolfe submitted her resume to be EPM’s HR Director. To secure employment at EPM, Rolfe boasted on her resume that she had a B.S. in Human Resource Management from Columbia Southern University, a SHRM-CP certification, and more than 15 years of dedication and significant experience managing a full spectrum of human resources programs and functions. … After Rolfe was hired, certain people at EPM learned that Rolfe was working toward a bachelor’s degree but did not actually have one yet as her resume represented. … In addition, an EPM employee who had previously worked with Rolfe at Rehabilitation Physicians of Georgia reported that Rolfe had been a “Medical Assistant” there — not an “HR Director” as her resume represented. That person further reported contacting Rolfe’s previous employers and discovering that she had falsified other information as well.
- Less than a month after she had been hired by EPM, on March 19, 2020, Rolfe was reprimanded because she had made inappropriate jokes via text message about conducting rectal temperature checks in the office.
- About a month later, on April 23, 2020, Rolfe was reprimanded again, this time for referring to employees as “savages.”
- Less than two months later, two employees reported Rolfe for calling employees “f***ing bitches,” saying an employee had only been hired because she had “big boobs,” and making racist comments.
- So, on June 11, 2020—the day before Rolfe’s stepson shot Rayshard Brooks — EPM CEO Eddy Perez met with Rolfe to notify her of the latest complaints against her. Upon hearing she had been accused of making racist comments—and before Perez had brought up Rolfe’s inappropriate remark about an employee’s “big boobs”—Rolfe became enraged, saying that she doesn’t see color, but that some people are “idiots.” Because of how upset Rolfe had become, Perez cut the meeting short and told her that he would follow up with her after investigating more.
- The next day, Friday, June 12, 2020, Rolfe’s stepson shot Rayshard Brooks in the parking lot of an Atlanta Wendy’s, prompting Rolfe to ask to work from home the following Monday. Although Rolfe was under investigation for serious misconduct, the company nevertheless granted Rolfe eight weeks of paid leave in light of her family situation, while it simultaneously continued its investigation. During the investigation, a flood of employees came forward and reported other instances of Rolfe’s wildly unprofessional and hostile conduct, including:
- Rolfe told an employee that another employee was a “dumb b***h” and that the only reason a man would be interested in her was because she “must suck d*** really good.”
- Rolfe told a Black woman who dates Black men that she needed “to get outside the box and upgrade [her] standards.”
- In response to an employee saying she liked her coffee like she liked her men, Black and strong, Rolfe responded, “Black and weak. Don’t no woman want a weak man.”
- Rolfe remarked that an employee wore “little girl ruffle panties.”
- Rolfe shouted at and berated employees, including by using the following language: “stupid b***hes,” “dingbats,” “tell that b***h to get a f***in’ name tag,” “this is bulls**t and stupid s**t,” and “who f***ed up.”
The company says that after “learning” about all of these allegations, they moved to terminate Melissa Rolfe on June 18, 2020. The company said, “Notably, when Rolfe was informed that she was being terminated, she did not ask why; she knew that she had been repeatedly reprimanded and that—before her stepson shot Brooks—the company had begun an investigation into multiple complaints against her.”
The lawsuit states that they company is suing for “defamation” and “false light invasion of privacy.”