Unintended voicemail sparks discrimination lawsuit in Illinois

A Chicago mom’s job hunt went south when a recruiter’s voicemail blunder revealed some nasty comments about her.

Ashley Chapman, who is raising two kids alone, just moved back to the Windy City after living in North Dakota for a while. Needing work, she tried using a staffing agency in Elgin.

Then, Chapman got a voicemail from the agency. While the initial message seemed routine, the caller failed to hang up properly, inadvertently recording a conversation that included discriminatory remarks about Chapman.

In the recorded conversation, voices speculating about Chapman’s appearance and race can be heard. “Let’s see what Ashley Newman looks like,” one comment stated. “I don’t think she’s Black ... I think she’s white ... Yeah, I think she’s white trash.” The recording also included personal judgments about Chapman’s life, with another voice saying, “Your baby daddy’s married and you’ve had unprotected sex.”

David Fish, Chapman’s lawyer, described the message as “repulsive” and noted the rarity of such explicit evidence in discrimination cases. “In cases like this, you don’t find out why decisions were made. Usually, people aren’t stupid enough to leave a voicemail like this,” Fish remarked.

Chapman and her lawyer have filed a discrimination charge with the state. They’re saying the agency messed up on three fronts: discriminating against her for being single, being a woman, and her race.

Despite the voicemail, Chapman still tried to get a job there because she needed to feed her kids. “I need a job. I need money for my kids. It wouldn’t matter where I worked,” she explained. “People make mistakes, but they just took it too far.”