Sherry Roe sought justice for her father for nine years. She finally got it, but she had no idea that the journey would transform her into a crusader for those who have become ill due to work-related contamination.
Roe’s father, Jerry Dukes, died from Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in 2009. The cancer was brought about by exposure to benzene on the job at General Motors. But it wasn’t until an unfortunate meeting at the oncologist that she realized the problem didn’t stop with just her father.
“Dad was getting his treatment,” said Roe. “He was sitting in the waiting room between two guys, and they were all talking and laughing. I asked, ‘Dad, do you know these guys?’ He said, ‘You aren’t going to believe it. This guy was my foreman at the plant, and this guy worked in the same department with me. They’ve got the same thing I do!’”
When Roe and her father first met with the oncologist, she asked them if they knew what benzene was.
“Dad said, ‘Yeah. I use it every day,’” said Roe. “The oncologist told us three things cause AML: benzene exposure, previous chemo treatment, or previous radiation treatments. Dad hadn’t had any treatments. He was healthy, but he started bruising and getting short of breath. He went and got checked out. They ran tests and found out he had AML.”
The family chose not to tell Dukes of his diagnosis, instead telling him he had a blood disorder. And they told him there was a drug that could help.
“They had a trial drug that could give him 14 months to live,” said Roe. “I couldn’t tell him that. I knew my dad. He would just lay down and give up. We told him he had a blood disorder that could get worse. He lived another 14 months, almost to the day. But he got a good year. He traveled. He didn’t know he was terminal. I don’t regret not telling him.”
The whole affair caused Roe to go hunting for answers. She contacted Kokomo Perspective managing editor Pat Munsey, who pulled area death records for her and interviewed oncologists who confirmed that Dukes’ cancer was due to industrial benzene exposure. Together, they wrote a story about it, and Roe’s life changed.
“After that story, my phone started ringing with people who were sick,” said Roe. “But I was mainly focused on Dad. We contacted a personal injury attorney, and after Dad passed away, I got an email from the attorney who told me what they needed to go to work.
“The case was filed in 2010. It took me from July to December 2009 to get the product IDs and the employment records. Then it was five years of tracking down co-workers. I think there were 10 who agreed to talk. There were others, but they were scared.”
Suddenly, it wasn’t just about her dad. Those phone calls from sick people and their families continued, and she began looking for more of them.
“I did all of the discovery for Dad’s case,” said Roe. “I didn’t have to, but I was here. I had contacts. I would hear stories, and some of them were unbelievable.”
Roe heard about a woman who had no fingerprints when she died because of years of chemical exposure. She heard stories about people living in homes inundated with trichloroethylene and benzene just blocks from a Delco plant. She was told of illegal dumping of chemicals in drains that fed directly into the community’s waterways.
But it had to start with Dukes. It took months for Roe to track down each of the chemicals her father used on the job and which company provided them. General Motors, however, wasn’t exactly cooperative, despite the fact that it wasn’t being sued. In Indiana, a person cannot sue their employer for exposure to toxic substances unless malicious intent can be proven.
“General Motors didn’t want to help,” said Roe. “In fact, the plant manager at the time told me he didn’t even have a record of my dad working there. So, I called Detroit and talked to a really nice lady who sent me my dad’s employee file.
“Then, I started snooping around the plant. The way it worked was someone working at the plant who had someone who was sick would help me. They got me an accounts payable list of everyone who supplied the products. From there, I had to match them to Dad’s departments, which were listed on his employee file.
“The plant manager called and said the records were long gone; that they didn’t keep records from the 1970s and 1980s. So, another friend who had a friend whose mother worked in Health and Safety and was sick contacted me. Over a period of three weeks, these two girls who worked for Delphi would sneak in and photocopy the records, then meet me on Lincoln Road. Before it was all over, I had 750 pages of records.”
Armed with the evidence, Roe and the personal injury attorneys filed suit in New Jersey.
“The case was filed in New Jersey because no wrongful death attorney wants to file in Indiana,” said Roe. “It is a factory-friendly state. No judge will award anything.”
Filing a lawsuit was just the start for Roe. She had to find her father’s co-workers. She went knocking on doors. Some of them helped. Others, not understanding the situation, were afraid of what the company might do to them. Finally, Roe got 10 co-workers on board. But it was another two years before the first company settled.
“It was 2016 when the first company finally settled,” said Roe. “In January 2017, everyone else settled, with the exception of DuPont, which got dismissed. They fought it.”
The settlement didn’t end Roe’s fight. After battling for years, she had become known in certain circles. People in communities with similar health problems with industrial origins began reaching out to her. People in Kokomo and Howard County did as well. In 2019, she held a public forum on illnesses caused by work-related exposure, and the restaurant was filled over capacity with people seeking answers.
Lately, Roe began working with activists in Martinsville and Franklin, Ind., where entire families are falling ill from industrial chemical exposure. She’s even picked up a nickname among those who know her: Erin B, after Erin Brockovich, who famously fought a similar battle years earlier and continues to advocate today.
Roe currently works for a number of personal injury attorneys, tracking down information on industrial chemical exposure and illnesses, and at the same time she is finishing up a book.
“Profits Over People” is the culmination of her work, gathering stories of workers who have gotten ill from their employers’ unsafe practices.
“I have been working on this book for about seven years,” said Roe. “Last spring, we found someone in Nashville to publish it, but it came back. The publisher said it’s a little too short and needs a finale. That’s when I realized what I needed to finish the story. It was my story, too.”
Roe said the book is going through final editing and will go to press soon. In the meantime, she has started a Facebook page – Profits Over People – where she hopes more people will reach out for help.
“I know there are more sick people out there, and they don’t understand that there is a statute of limitations,” said Roe. “The laws have changed so that when you realize you have cancer, you have two years to file. Sometimes it takes 20-40 years for leukemia to show up.
“This is all about the workers. People lose their lives on the jobs, but sometimes the sick people are forgotten. I don’t want to forget them.”
Roe can be reached through the Profits Over People Facebook page.