The Broad sued again. Museum faces $10 million discrimination lawsuit

Jessica Gelt, Los Angeles Times on Jan 24, 2025

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The Broad and its former chief operating officer are facing a second lawsuit in less than a week, accusing them of discrimination, retaliation and defamation.

Former HR director Darron Rezell Walker filed the first suit, alleging that former COO Alysa Gerlach pressured him to fire a white employee, Rick Mitchell, 65, based on personal dislike — as well as his age and race — and then fired Walker when he failed to find sufficient cause for that action.

Mitchell filed the second lawsuit, for $10 million, on Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. He alleges that Gerlach orchestrated his termination based on his age and "racial hatred," and fabricated a justification for firing him after an investigation that she asked Walker to undertake did not find evidence of wrongdoing on Mitchell's part. The lawsuit also accuses the Broad of failure to prevent retaliation, and Gerlach of defamation for allegedly knowingly making false claims about Mitchell and his ability to do his job.

"The Broad stands by its personnel and business decisions and our strong anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies," a Broad spokesperson said in an email. "The claims alleged are completely without merit and we will vigorously defend these matters in court. In the meantime, and as always, the entire Broad team is focused on creating a welcoming, inclusive space where everyone feels safe, respected, and that they belong."

Gerlach, who no longer works at the Broad, did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment. The Broad did not respond to a question about the circumstances of Gerlach's departure.

Mitchell was employed by the Broad from Jan. 1, 2015 — about nine months before it opened to the public — until his termination in late April of last year. According to the lawsuit, Broad founder Eli Broad quickly promoted Mitchell from chief engineer to director of facilities. In that capacity, Mitchell was responsible for the 120,000-square-foot museum's maintenance and operations. The Broad houses more than 2,000 postwar and contemporary artworks.

The lawsuit quotes various glowing performance reviews, including one from 2020 that notes Mitchell "is a terrific leader of his team, genuinely caring about them and continuing to ask them to challenge themselves with new projects. He is a respectful and dependable collaborator and he has excellent relationships across teams."

When Gerlach, who is Latina, arrived in 2022, the lawsuit alleges, she was immediately hostile to Mitchell. She allegedly said she had spent her whole career working in "a white man's world" and that she did not want "an old white man" heading up facilities. She allegedly said she wanted to remake the department with "fresh eyes" and "fresh blood."

The events leading to Mitchell's termination began in early 2024 when Gerlach staged six weeks of weekly training, which the lawsuit says was presented as a "safe space" meant to allow "a free flow and exchange of ideas and information without judgment."

During this time, Mitchell expressed concerns about tasks assigned to his team that didn't align with their job descriptions — including work that required the ability to lift and assemble heavy pieces of a production stage, according to the lawsuit. A number of men and women on Mitchell's team were worried about their health and safety, the lawsuit says, so Mitchell raised the issue during the training sessions.

Four days later, according to the lawsuit, Mitchell was suspended. Gerlach accused him of making "derogatory, offensive and inappropriate" comments. Gerlach allegedly asked then-HR director Walker to conduct a workplace investigation of Mitchell, allegedly calling Mitchell a "misogynist," saying she "hated" him and "we are trying to find a way to fire him." Walker complied and found no wrongdoing, the lawsuit says.

Gerlach allegedly dismissed Walker's findings and fired Mitchell anyway, according to the lawsuit. Several weeks later, she allegedly fired Walker for objecting to Mitchell's termination.

"There's no documentation of him ever having done anything that justified termination," said Mitchell's attorney, Bernard Alexander, adding that the Broad was given a copy of Mitchell's complaint six months before it was filed and that the museum "never, ever came to the table with anything that makes sense."

"Now we have no choice but to publicly say this is how they treat their loyal employees," Alexander said. "There is no reason why Mr. Mitchell should have been treated this way. He was thrown away as though he did not matter, and now they're standing behind it as though what occurred was justified."