The top official in the FBI’s Seattle office, who in 2011 filed a federal sex-discrimination lawsuit against the bureau, on Monday abruptly retired, according to The Seattle Times.
Laura Laughlin became special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office in 2004, and the Times described her tenure at “stormy.” In 2006, the FBI took a “rare” step when it reassigned the investigation of the unsolved 2001 killing of a federal prosecutor in Seattle to the Portland, Ore. field office. The move came after Laughlin attempted to reduce the number of agents working the case in her office.
In her 2011 lawsuit, Laughlin claimed that she had been denied at least 15 promotions since 2007, had been pressured to retire, and had been told she would never be promoted within the FBI. U.S. District Judge John Bates last year dismissed some of Laughlin’s claims, according to the Times.
An FBI spokesperson told the Times that Laughlin was approaching the mandatory retirement age of 57 and that “many special agents choose to retire before that age-related mandatory point.”
