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Dunn is gay, and some of his fellow corrections officers harassed him.

They made “sexually derogatory comments� over the prison’s loudspeaker. They started rumors about him. They made sexual jokes in his presence, demeaning the LGBTQ community.

Dunn filed grievances and went through the chain of command. In March 2018, despite having a strong employee record, he was fired.

Five years ago, Dunn filed a discrimination lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections. The department for several years has been inundated with complaints about sexual assault and sexual harassment. The complaints have come from employees and inmates.

Since 2020, according to data from the Missouri Attorney General’s legal expense fund, the state has paid in lawsuit settlements related to the Department of Corrections. The cases ranged from wrongful death accusations to employee harassment.

Dunn, however, is struggling to get his day in court. That’s because the office of Attorney General Andrew Bailey can’t seem to keep enough staff lawyers, says Dunn’s attorney, Rod Chapel.

“ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ went through a herd of people over the past few years,â€� Chapel says. “And basically, nobody was paying attention to the case.â€�

Bailey’s lawsuits against the federal government, China, Starbucks and local school districts over culture issues earn him face time on Fox News. But it seems that at least some parts of the job of running his office may need more of his attention. It’s not a problem entirely of his own making. The revolving door at the attorney general’s office started under Bailey’s two predecessors, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt.

In a hearing before the Missouri Legislature earlier this year, when he asked for more money, Bailey, a Republican, said he was improving retention at the office. But he’s still not spending his entire budget, lawmakers of his own political party told him, because his office is understaffed. In 2024, state budget documents show, nearly a third of the budgeted positions in the attorney general’s office were vacant.

Indeed, Dunn’s court file shows a litany of assistant attorneys general entering the case and leaving it, with few filings in between. And any motions that were filed came late, Chapel claims in court documents.

Earlier this year, in a motion for default judgment, Chapel wrote that “1,751 days after Plaintiff’s Petition was filed, Defendants have no answer on file.� He also said the state had failed to cooperate with discovery, and he objected to the state’s push to move the case to Pike County.

The default wasn’t granted and, much to Chapel’s dismay, the case was transferred to Pike County. That means his client faces more delays.

The delays are similar to those in a case that was argued before the Missouri Supreme Court earlier this month. It was brought by Trent Berhow, an inmate who was hurt while performing repairs at the now-closed Western Missouri Correctional Center. Berhow is seeking sanctions against the attorney general’s office for delays in his personal injury case.

“The attorney general’s office strays from this idea of enforcing the law as written when representing the state of Missouri,� Berhow’s attorney, Gabe Harris, argued before the Supreme Court. “The trial court should have punished and not rewarded the state for its years-long discovery delays.�

The case, filed in 2019, was more than 1,400 days old when it finally made it to trial, where the state prevailed. Harris filed an appeal because of the delays and the trial court’s refusal to punish the attorney general’s office for not responding properly to discovery requests.

“Between the date of the original filing and ultimate judgment, no fewer than 10 Assistant Attorneys General entered their appearance on behalf of the State,� Harris wrote in his appeal.

The problem is well-known among lawyers, Chapel says, and some judges are starting to draw attention to the failure of the attorney general’s office to fulfill its duties.

In another case Chapel has against the Department of Corrections, a judge ordered sanctions against the attorney general’s office for failing to produce a witness at a deposition. And in a third Chapel case, also involving employee discrimination, a judge issued a default judgement of more than $414,000 against the Department of Corrections, pointing out that “serial attorneys on this case filed and yet again filed the same motions in an attempt to avoid default judgment.�

James Lawson, the deputy chief of staff for Bailey, declined to discuss specific cases but said the office is making progress on hiring and retaining attorneys.

In Dunn’s case, the office has hired outside lawyers to fight the discrimination claim, meaning the delays are now costing taxpayers. In their response to Chapel’s motion for default judgment, the attorneys representing the Department of Corrections suggest the delays are “due to excusable neglect.�

Chapel, who is also president of the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP, recalls Bailey making similar arguments against former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner when she couldn’t manage her office well enough to have prosecutors show up for trial. Those delays contributed to her removal from office.

“The rules should mean what they say for state agencies just like they do other litigants,� Chapel says.

He suggests, as Harris did in the Supreme Court case, that Bailey needs to do a better job of listening to his own words.

“Do as I say but not what I do,� Chapel says. “That’s what it sounds like to me.�