Commission finds reasonable grounds in Leffler age‑discrimination complaint against Eastern Events

The Maine Human Rights Commission voted to find reasonable grounds to believe that Eastern Events discriminated on the basis of age against complainant Eric Leffler (case E230469). The investigator's report and testimony at the hearing documented a sequence of hiring and succession‑planning actions after an acquisition; the complainant and his counsel argued there was no contemporaneous performance documentation supporting the employer's stated reasons and that the decision to hire a substantially younger manager to train in the same role was consistent with age‑based pretext.

Respondent counsel described a business decision driven by succession planning and asserted complaints about the complainant's conduct, training and occasional customer interactions supported separation. Respondent emphasized multiple succession plans where employees coexisted with trainees for extended periods and argued the record did not support pretext.

Complainant counsel said contemporaneous records, high prior performance scores and the timing of actions after the supervisor learned the complainant's age made a pretextual explanation likely. The commission concluded the record contained sufficient indications to find reasonable grounds for age discrimination and moved to attempt conciliation; staff will notify the parties and initiate the conciliation process.

The commission directed staff to send a letter to parties outlining conciliation steps and next procedural milestones.