AUBURN — Androscoggin County Sheriff Guy Desjardins and his second-in-command at the county jail denied Wednesday they retaliated against a former corrections worker who helped blow the whistle on a former jail supervisor in a harassment case.

Desjardins testified for more than three hours during the third day of a civil trial in Androscoggin County Superior Court. Former jail worker Lisa Levesque of Buckfield claimed administrators retaliated against her because of her opposition to the proposed return of her former supervisor to a day shift. She also worked days. She said she feared he would harass her as he had before.

Desjardins told jurors that the letters her wrote to Lisa Levesque in the spring of 2009, including written reprimands and a shift reassignment, had no connection to her opposition to former Sgt. Kevin Harmon’s possible move back to a day shift.

Harmon had been switched to nights following a two-week suspension in the spring of 2008 after an internal investigation revealed his repeated harassment of female workers at the jail, including Levesque.

Just over a year later, Harmon was considered for a daytime shift posting as classifications officer. That news alarmed Levesque, who had been supervised at one time by Harmon. She wrote an eight-page letter for the investigation detailing Harmon’s longtime harassment. She also had been interviewed by the investigator about Harmon’s harassment. She learned that Harmon was aware of her statements critical of him.

Shortly after Levesque heard Harmon might be transferred to days again, she met with senior supervisors at the jail. Then Levesque heard that Harmon’s transfer was certain. She wrote Desjardins a letter expressing her concerns and citing the state’s whistle-blower law and alluded to legal action.

Desjardins said Wednesday he didn’t perceive Levesque’s letter as a threat and his written response less than a week later was not intended as retaliation. In that letter, he said he tried to assure her there had been and continued to be a policy of “zero tolerance” of harassment at the jail.

Levesque’s attorney, Guy Loranger, told Desjardins that clearly hadn’t been the case in the past because the internal investigation turned up evidence that Harmon had gotten away with harassing subordinates for years.

Desjardins said he hadn’t been made aware of that until the 2008 report was complete. Once Harmon’s bad behavior was documented, Desjardins took disciplinary action against Harmon, he said.

“I was boiling from this,” Desjardins said of Harmon’s behavior as described in the report. “It’s nothing I would have tolerated.”

He said he discussed the report with jail administrators, but took no disciplinary action against them despite the report’s suggestion that several of them had known of Harmon’s inappropriate behavior, but hadn’t disciplined him for it. Desjardins said the problem apparently existed at the level of sergeants and corporals, but he didn’t believe it had gone further up the chain of command. Loranger reminded Desjardins that the county’s policy mandates reporting of harassment.

After Levesque made clear her opposition to Harmon’s transfer to days, her supervisors began to discipline her for protocol violations, Loranger said.

She was formally disciplined for allegedly going repeatedly into an office in the recreation area to log in her time while she was supervising prisoners. She was disciplined in a letter from Desjardins for allegedly threatening a lawsuit against her supervisor.

Levesque also was cited for alleged infractions that mirrored behavior she claims was engaged in by other workers without consequences.

The last straw for Levesque came when Desjardins sent her a letter removing her from her regular daytime 7½-hour shift as recreation officer and putting her on a 12-hour shift instead.

He said he decided on the shift change to give Levesque greater guidance in an effort to help her succeed in improving her attitude, Desjardins said.

“She was going down the road to possible termination,” he said and he wanted to get her into a “new environment.”

Lt. Jeffrey Chute testified Wednesday that he hadn’t been friends with Harmon outside of work and denied being part of a clique that included Harmon.

He said his disciplinary actions of Levesque were not intended as retaliation against her in response to her opposition to Harmon’s transfer back to days.

Chute said he agreed with the decision to send Harmon to the night shift and he said he wasn’t upset when Harmon was kept on nights after Levesque stated her objections.

Chute said his reasons for disciplining Levesque had to do with safety only, not retaliation.

Levesque’s attorney finished presenting her case against the county Wednesday. The defense is expected to wrap up its case Thursday morning.