SALT LAKE CITY -- After seven years of listening to the complaints of others harassed at work, a former investigator for the Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor Division has filed a harassment lawsuit of her own.

Carol Kline initially filed a formal discrimination complaint against UALD in 2006 after being fired in 2005. A 14 month investigation validated Kline's claims that she suffered gender-based discrimination and was fired because she and two other women complained about a hostile work environment between 1999 and 2003.

Kline filed a lawsuit Feb. 11, after failing to successfully negotiate a settlement with the state office, a branch of the Utah Labor Commission. She's seeking $200,000 and lost wages.

"I am deeply saddened that I was forced to leave a job I loved by an agency that is supposed to enforce anti-discrimination (policies)," she said. "I hope the UALD will seriously become a model agency protecting the rights of every employee."

John Gothard, the assistant Utah attorney General representing UALD said the agency denies the allegations.

"I believe ultimately they will be exonerated," Gothard said.

UALD has a history of controversy dating back to the early 1990s when a task force was appointed by then-Gov. Norm Bangerter to review how it enforced anti-discrimination law. Then in 1995, a state advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found UALD showed "bureaucratic arrogance and harassment of the powerless."

A subsequent legislative audit also recommended changes to correct ineffective management, inconsistencies in judging cases and a lack of accountability.

Further complaints in 2003 forced the resignation of division director Joe Gallegos.

Kline said she was optimistic after Gallegos resigned, but that the structure and personnel in place maintained the same hostile environment.

Kline's attorney, Russell Monahan has worked on other UALD cases and said he's discouraged by how the system works.

"When people file because they're being discriminated against, it takes them 2, 3 or 4 years to investigate. That's just not acceptable," said Monahan. "A lot of states have time limits on their agencies, but Utah doesn't."