City settles lawsuit with Bun Hardy

By Diana Haecker
The City of Nome settled a civil lawsuit with Clarice Bun Hardy in the amount of $750,000 and a public apology.
Hardy, represented by the ACLU programs and the lawfirm Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Miller & Monkman, filed a lawsuit in May 2020 against the City of Nome, former Nome Police Chief John Papasodora and former NPD Lt. Nicholas Harvey. The lawsuit alleged that NPD repeatedly ignored her report of a sexual assault she suffered.
Hardy worked as a dispatcher at the Nome Police Department. In March 2017 she reported to her colleagues at NPD that she had been raped but NPD did not launch an investigation into the case. At the time, John Papasodora held the NPD Chief of Police position and Lt. Nicholas Harvey was the officer to whom Hardy reported the rape.
Alleging the failure to investigate was systemic, a ACLU press release stated that “a later investigation into the department revealed hundreds of sexual assault reports, most filed by Alaska Native women, went without investigation.”
The settlement will result in a dismissal of the lawsuit and payment to Hardy. According to the settlement document and Nome City Manager Glen Steckman, the AMLJIA (Alaska Municipal League Joint Insurance Association) will pay the $750,000, which includes legal costs and attorney’s fees. The settlement also stipulates that each party bears its own legal expenses and lawyer fees. Steckman said the City was represented by an attorney provided by AMLJIA, paid for by insurance.
According to Steckman, the settlement paid out by the AMLJIA also covers Papasodora and Harvey as they were in the employ of the Nome Police Department at the time.
The agreement was signed by all parties – Papasodora, Harvey and Steckman on behalf of the City - between March 17 and March 21.
In addition to the financial settlement, the agreement stipulates that the City of Nome issues a public statement to include an apology to Bun Hardy “for the fact that NPD in 2017 and 2018 failed to adequately and properly investigate her complaint of sexual assault.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the City issued the apology in a press release on behalf of the Mayor and the Nome Common Council. It reads in parts that “The City is aware that the NPD’s failure to respond, as it should have, caused Ms. Hardy to suffer unnecessarily, and we’re deeply sorry. We hope that today’s settlement provides Ms. Hardy with some measure of comfort and resources to help her regain her strength. The Mayor and Common Council of Nome has instituted measures and is actively monitoring the NPD to make sure that what happened to Ms. Hardy may never happen again.”
In 2018, Nome and NPD were under different administrative leadership than they are today. In late summer 2018, Nome Police Chief Papasodora chose to not renew his contract and he left his position on Sept. 15, 2018. Under the direction of Bob Estes, Papasodora’s successor, former Lt. Nicholas Harvey was allowed to resign from NPD after a performance review found problems with his work. Also, in September 2018 instead of opting to extend his contract for two more years, then-City Manager Tom Moran signed a six-month extension of his contract. After allegations of harassing behavior surfaced, he was put on administrative leave and resigned in October. As city manager, Moran was the supervisor of NPD Chief Papasodora.
City Manager Steckman said that NPD leadership since then has worked to completely investigate more than 400 sexual assault and other violent cases. The state was behind processing the SART kits and it, too, has worked to clear the backlog, but Kawerak Inc. NSEDC, NSHC and the City of Nome have allocated funds to process the Nome SART kits in an independent lab in Virginia to speed up the processing time.
In a statement, Bun Hardy said that she has been reliving trauma for the last five years but she hopes it is not for nothing: “My hope is that the City of Nome stays true to the promise made in the apology and that it follows through on measures to ensure what happened to me doesn’t happen again.”