A former Oak Park city clerk has sued the city and three of its employees, alleging that her supervisor illegally dug through a law enforcement database to unearth her past sexual assault history and shared it with coworkers, while colleagues mocked her Muslim faith and spread degrading rumors about her. Tammara Saloum, a Muslim woman of Iraqi descent who lives in Dearborn, filed the complaint in Oakland County Circuit Court alleging religious discrimination, workplace harassment, and unlawful invasion of privacy.
Saloum was hired in June 2024 to process Freedom of Information Act requests, gun permits, and other city records, according to the lawsuit as reported by MLive. The harassment allegedly started not long after she began the job. The suit names the City of Oak Park along with employees Stephanie Prister, Ariana Grefke, and India England as defendants.
According to the lawsuit, coworkers made disparaging comments about Muslim imams and the Islamic call to prayer. In March 2025, after Saloum told Prister, her supervisor at the time, that she would be fasting for Ramadan, Prister allegedly responded that Saloum might “pass out” or “be grumpy.” Prister is also accused of telling others that “a lot of Islamics had caused problems in Oak Park.”
Coworkers Accused of Spreading Sexual Rumors
The lawsuit alleges that both Grefke and England spread false and sexually degrading rumors about Saloum and a police detective. Grefke is separately accused of referring to someone as Saloum's “kind” in a way meant to demean her national origin, and of using derogatory sexual language about someone connected to the Hamtramck police department, per the complaint detailed by MLive.
Saloum reported the harassment to the city's human-resources department in May 2025, but the lawsuit alleges the mistreatment continued and worsened afterward. A human-resources representative reportedly described Prister's remarks as an “ignorant problem,” though the city did not impose formal discipline on Prister for the comments.
Supervisor Accused of Database Misuse
The most serious allegation in the complaint centers on Prister's alleged access to the Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System, known as CLEMIS, a records-sharing network that Oakland County established in 1968 and that now connects more than 250 public safety agencies across Southeast Michigan, according to the Urban Institute. The lawsuit alleges Prister used the system to uncover Saloum's past sexual-assault history and then shared that confidential information with other employees. CLEMIS rules restrict access and usage specifically to protect sensitive data of this kind.
Prister allegedly told city human-resources representatives that she knew about Saloum's history and had disclosed it without consent, and she reportedly acknowledged that her actions were “retaliatory in nature.” The city's response was to require Prister to complete two days of training, according to the lawsuit. Federal appropriations legislation approved in July 2025 included $1 million to modernize the CLEMIS system with an eye toward strengthening data security and transparency, according to the office of U.S. Senator Gary Peters, though that funding push predates and is unrelated to the specific allegations in Saloum's case.
Medical Leave and Job Abandonment Dispute
In August 2025, Saloum took medical leave citing recurring PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and depression. While she was out, the city informed her that her ongoing absence would be considered job abandonment. The lawsuit alleges violations of both the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act, which entitles eligible employees facing serious health conditions, including PTSD and depression, to up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave, per the U.S. Department of Labor's guidance on the statute.
Human resources experts generally advise that employers document multi-channel outreach to an employee before determining that leave has been abandoned voluntarily, a standard that stands in tension with the city's job-abandonment declaration while Saloum was still within her protected leave window. The lawsuit also alleges invasion of privacy and defamation tied to the CLEMIS disclosure and the rumors spread about her.
Saloum is represented by the Center for Council on American-Islamic Relations Legal Fund. She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, including lost wages, medical expenses, and emotional distress. A separate administrative complaint about the same events was dismissed by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights in 2026, which cited “insufficient evidence.” That state review operated under different standards than the circuit court lawsuit, which allows for discovery into internal city communications.
Pattern of Complaints Statewide
CAIR's Michigan chapter reported processing a record 382 civil rights complaints in 2024, pointing to a sharp increase in workplace discrimination and First Amendment cases statewide, according to CBS News Detroit. The organization has also pursued other civil rights litigation in Oakland County; in January 2025, a federal judge allowed a CAIR-MI lawsuit against the Oakland County Sheriff's Office over religious accommodations for a Muslim woman in custody to proceed, as reported by the Arab American News.
Saloum's case also follows a broader pattern of Muslim public employees in Metro Detroit alleging retaliation after reporting workplace harassment. In May, a Muslim police officer in nearby Eastpointe filed a civil rights complaint alleging he faced harassment after reporting anti-Muslim slurs from colleagues within his department, Hoodline reported.
An Oak Park city spokeswoman told MLive she was unaware of the lawsuit and would need to consult with attorneys before responding to the allegations.
