The detective who helped advise ‘Mare of Easttown’ is suing Chester County over discrimination

A former Chester County detective — who served as a technical adviser for the HBO crime drama Mare of Easttown — is suing her former employer and supervisor over alleged sex discrimination.

Christine Bleiler, who became Kate Winslet’s “go-to person” on developing her Emmy-winning performance as the titular character Mare Sheehan, says she was subjected to a “prolonged pattern of hostile, discriminatory, and demeaning treatment based on her sex,” according to a complaint filed this month in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

And though an internal investigation “corroborated” she was being harassed, according to the suit, the county failed to remedy the harassment to which she was subjected.

In addition to Chester County, the lawsuit names as a defendant Thomas Goggin, who was Bleiler’s supervisor from 2021 to 2023. Bleiler resigned in September.

A spokesperson for the county declined to comment on ongoing litigation. An attorney for Goggin, who now serves as police chief in West Pikeland Township, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Bleiler, who worked as a police officer for nearly a dozen years in Oxford Borough before beginning as a Chester County detective in 2015, began working under Goggin in February 2021. He accused her of talking too much, yelled at her repeatedly over how she handled suspects or differences in opinion, demeaned and condescended to her, and told her “she ‘better not’ tell anyone that he was a problem,” according to the complaint.

In August 2023, Bleiler brought the complaints to the detective division’s leadership, prompting an internal investigation that ultimately corroborated her claims, the suit says. Goggin was suspended for two weeks and was demoted, according to the complaint.

Bleiler was worried about working near Goggin once he returned from his suspension, the suit says, fearing he might retaliate. She was instructed by the department’s leadership to “bury her head in her work” and “move on from this.” Though she began reporting to a new supervisor, working in proximity to Goggin “caused her significant discomfort, anxiety and distress over potential retaliation and continued harassment,” the complaint says.

Bleiler is asking a judge to declare the county and Goggin’s actions violated federal and state antidiscrimination laws. It asks the court to grant her compensation for past and future lost earnings, earning capacity, and benefits, which the complaint argues Bleiler lost due to the “discriminatory and retaliatory conduct.”

“The conduct of defendants, as set forth above, was severe or pervasive enough to make a reasonable person believe that the conditions of employment had been altered and that the working environment was hostile or abusive, and in fact made plaintiff believe that her working environment was hostile and abusive because of her sex and her complaint of sex discrimination,” the complaint states.

While a detective for the county, in 2019 Bleiler served as a technical adviser for HBO’s Mare of Easttown, taking phone calls from Winslet morning and night to discuss upcoming scenes or to answer questions. At one point, Winslet visited her at the Justice Center in West Chester.

“She insisted,” Bleiler told The Inquirer in 2021. “I told my lieutenant at that time, he couldn’t believe it. He said, ‘All right, she’s your responsibility. Get her in and get her out, keep it quiet.’”