Lewiston caseworker sues Maine DHHS alleging retaliation for concerns he raised
LEWISTON — An Office of Children and Family Services employee filed a civil lawsuit Thursday under the Maine Whistleblower’s Protection Act and the Human Rights Act in Androscoggin County Superior Court against the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
The suit — filed by Auburn resident Sergey Miller, a child protective caseworker in the Lewiston office since 2024 — alleges officials have retaliated against him for raising concerns in January 2026 about child safety and the handling of findings that allege abuse.
Miller said his issue with DHHS officials began in mid-January 2026 when he refused an overnight assignment he reported as unsafe. Some two weeks later, on Jan. 26, he alleges an assistant program manager directed him to change an unrelated finding on child abuse, an action he considered unethical due to the nature of the recorded findings.
Miller said in an email that the record of child abuse included video of how children were being treated, and “everyone below the administrators that worked the case” agreed on it.
“I was told to change it,” Miller said. “I said ‘no,’ in writing … (and) the next day I received my first discipline. The finding was changed anyway, in the record, by an administrator who had interviewed no one. No reason was recorded. No one who had worked the case was asked a question.”
Miller’s written warning included his use of foul language with superiors and refusal of the overnight assignment, according to the lawsuit.
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Despite issues up to that point, the lawsuit says Miller received a performance evaluation Jan. 30 rating him as meeting or exceeding expectations in every category but one and recommending him for a raise.
According to the lawsuit, in mid-February Miller reported further concerns about a supervisor’s child safety decisions and met with supervisors about the issue. He also issued written reports from April to May about two child protective cases and how findings were handled. Miller said after a transfer request was denied in May due to discipline, he notified supervisors he would be asking the Child Welfare Ombudsman to review another child welfare case.
About a week-and-a-half later, he received a written reprimand over correspondence with administrators and a separate job-performance warning. Miller filed a union grievance contesting discipline and his transfer denial.
“I asked to transfer out from under that supervisor,” Miller said. “In April I was told two supervisors had openings and nothing barred the move. In May, the program administrator denied it, ‘consistent with practice,’ because I had active discipline. That practice is not written anywhere.”
On June 6, Miller told his managers that he filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission, according to the lawsuit. In a meeting on June 8, DHHS officials discussed investigating Miller after learning of his ombudsman report and the next day placed Miller on paid administrative leave taking away his access to their systems and reassigning his cases, according to the lawsuit.
Miller also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in July against five DHHS officials for First Amendment violations and against the department itself under the Maine Whistleblowers’ Protection Act. The federal counts, Miller said, say the department retaliated against him for refusing to alter a child protective finding and for reporting a case to the Child Welfare Ombudsman.
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The state moved to dismiss the case in September, but the matter is still pending. Miller said he opted to drop the count against the department under the Maine Whistleblowers’ Protection Act in order to bring the most recent case in Superior Court.
In the civil lawsuit, Miller asks for a transfer out of the “supervisory chain of people who did this” so he can go back to work, have discipline removed from his record, damages and a written declaration that the rule denying his transfer does not exist.
“One side is accountable for breathing the wrong way — the other side is accountable for nothing,” Miller said. “The people who did this have never had to say, in writing, what I did or what rule I broke. I would like them to have to. I want to work there.”
The Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that it cannot answer questions pertaining to pending litigation.
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Tagged: maine department of health and human services
Joe Charpentier joined the Sun Journal in 2022 and covers the communities of Auburn, Lewiston and Poland. His previous experience was in a variety of rural Midcoast beats which included government, education,. More by Joe Charpentier
