Lawyers for a Port Townsend woman banned for life from the Mountain View pool, after a confrontation there with a transgender employee in 2022, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court June 12, seeking reinstatement of her pool privileges and compensation for damages and attorneys’ fees.

The suit names the city of Port Townsend, City Manager John Mauro, the Olympic Peninsula YMCA and its CEO Wendy Bart, pool manager Rowen DeLuna and Erin Hawkins, the YMCA’s marketing and communications manager.

Julie Jaman, 82, was permanently banned from Port Townsend’s YMCA-run pool on July 26, 2022 after she confronted a transgender employee in the women’s locker room. 

According to the lawsuit, Jaman was showering in the women’s locker room after swimming. While in the shower, she heard what she identified as a male voice coming from inside the locker room. She opened the shower curtain, and saw whom she identified as a man in a woman’s swimsuit—an individual who was later identified to her as YMCA employee Clementine Adams —with two young girls as they were preparing to use the toilet. Adams was not wearing employee identification. At the time, Jaman said she thought she was witnessing a crime in progress – hence the confrontation leading to Jaman’s subsequent banishment from the pool.

The lawsuit, filed by attorneys with the Center for American Liberty (CAL) alleges violations of Jaman’s First and 14th Amendment rights. Specifically, the suit alleges that Jaman’s confrontation with Adams is protected under the First Amendment. Secondly, they allege that Jaman’s lifetime ban is a violation of the 14th Amendment equal protection clause, right to due process, among other allegations.

The lawsuit also alleges the city defamed Jaman in statements released about the incident, and that Port Townsend City Council member Libby Urner-Wennstrom and Mayor David Faber made defamatory statements about Jaman on their personal social media pages. The lawsuit also alleges Mauro and Bart engaged in conspiratorial activities that “falsely labeled Jaman as hateful and bigoted and falsely claimed that she had engaged in a pattern of conduct that violated the YMCA’s policies in the past.”

The suit lists six complaints against the city, the YMCA and employees of both organizations. The lawsuit requests a jury trial for all claims.

The suit seeks to declare Jaman’s ban unlawful, and the reinstatement of Jaman’s pool privileges and permanent enjoinment of the YMCA’s Code of Conduct at the pool. It also seeks to award Jaman compensatory, nominal and punitive damages, and award her attorney fees, costs and all other relief the court deems proper.

Representatives from the city and the YMCA did not respond to requests for comment.

Jaman and CAL sent a letter to the city and the YMCA in March asking for an apology, reinstatement of Jaman’s pool access and $350,000 in damages.

The city of Port Townsend did not respond to that request. Lawyers representing the YMCA, according to Jaman’s attorneys, declined to settle.