A third Parking Authority employee filed a whistle-blower suit against the agency Friday, claiming he was driven out of his job because he complained of discrimination and and cooperated with law enforcement officials in an ongoing corruption investigation.

Felix Melecio claimed the authority's former executive director, Anthony Scarduzio, initially denied him promotions because he is Hispanic.

When Melecio complained about it to the state, Scarduzio forced him to work every weekend and made it nearly impossible for him to apply for job openings within the agency, the complaint states.

The authority's lawyer and commissioners allowed the harassment to continue and failed to protect Melecio as required by law, he claimed.

Melecio, of Camden, had worked for the authority since early 1999. He resigned at the start of this year.

He is the third employee to lodge a whistle-blower lawsuit against the authority in less than a year.

Melecio also accuses Scarduzio of pressuring him and other employees to lie to investigators.

The authority has been under criminal investigation since at least November, when the state Division of Criminal Justice ordered it to turn over thousands of documents dating back to 1995. The lawsuit, however, indicates the investigation began in early 2000.

Scarduzio died July 9 in what has been ruled a suicide. Minutes before his death, he shot and beat former authority employee Joseph Bowen, law enforcement officials said. Bowen and Parking Authority co-worker Thomas Del Rosario filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against Scarduzio and the agency in October. Bowen was fired in August 2000. Del Rosario was suspended without pay. Their lawsuit is pending.

Melecio's 32-page complaint was filed in Superior Court in Camden by lawyer William Bowe, who also represents Bowen and Del Rosario. He refused to comment on the latest lawsuit.

The lawsuit names Scarduzio's estate, agency lawyer Carlos Morcate, and commissioners Carmen Otero, Linda Jones, William Jenkins and Thomas Buckingham as defendants. Morcate said he had not seen a copy of the complaint as of late Friday afternoon.

"I resent the fact I keep being named in lawsuits when I'm general counsel and not involved in day-to-day operations," Morcate said.

Morcate said he was unaware Melecio was cooperating with investigators and therefore did not know he needed protection under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act.

"If they had been clean with me and honest and needed protection, it would have been done in a minute," Morcate said.

Jones refused to comment on the lawsuit because she had not seen it. Buckingham, Otero and Jenkins could not be reached for comment.

The sweeping complaint includes allegations that Scarduzio tried to bribe Melecio to not testify for Bowen during a termination hearing; attempted to thwart the criminal investigation by threatening employees and soliciting false statements from them; and initiated an interview process with an essay requirement designed to intimidate and exclude Hispanics.

The lawsuit also sheds some light on the criminal investigation. Among other things, it indicates that investigators questioned Bowen and Del Rosario about the authority's use of vendors and employees to do work on Scarduzio's house; the use of authority resources for two private development projects; and gambling by Scarduzio. Investigators also were looking into whether Scarduzio asked a restaurant owner to front for a bookmaking operation, the lawsuit indicates.