Wakefield

MEMORANDUM **

Appellee Providence Health System-Oregon (“Providence”) hired appellant Rose Wakefield (‘Wakefield”), an African American, to be a clinical medical assistant. Providence Clinical Manager Sharlene Pappe interviewed and hired Wakefield on November 9, 1998. On January 5, 1999 Providence terminated Wakefield’s employment.

The events leading to Wakefield’s termination commenced when Wakefield sought to arrange for direct deposit of her Providence paychecks into an account at the Providence Health System Federal Credit Union. In processing Wakefield’s direct deposit request, the Credit Union ran a credit check, which uncovered that Wake-field possibly was using multiple Social Security numbers. Providence’s Human Resources department subsequently discovered that Wakefield did not respond to a criminal history question on her employment application and that it did not have a record of Wakefield providing the identification required by the federal 1-9 form.

Pursuant to standard Providence procedure, Wakefield was suspended with pay pending an investigation and background check. During the period of Wakefield’s paid leave, several clinic employees in *26 formed Pappe that…