The current Disability Action Center board has filed a lawsuit against four former board members over leadership of the agency.

The center is a Butte County nonprofit that serves and advocates for disabled people in Redding and Chico offering independent living, employment and equal treatment.

The current board members are suing former board members Lluvia Hetrick, Mary Nagashima, Tracy Barker and Deborah Uhl-Schiallo.

These defendants did not file a response to the complaint.

Most of the group's allegations are against Hetrick, who served as the board’s president between Oct. 4 and Nov. 17. The plaintiffs claim that during this period Hetrick broke several board bylaws such as voting to remove and add members without a board quorum present.

According to the suit, Hetrick also initiated several other board violations that beginning with a special meeting on Nov. 3. In that meeting, three board members voted to remove the agnecy’s executive director, Evan LaVang, and to replace him with Barker as interim executive director, the suit claims.

LeVang has since been reinstated.

In response, six board members -- Lauri Evans, Russ Rudin, Kim Scott, Frank Smith, Mazurowski and Shepherd -- held a special meeting Nov. 17. At this meeting, Hetrick was voted off the board and was replaced by Lauri Evans as interim president. The board also voted to reinstate LeVang as the executive director and to restore any illegally terminated employees.

Nonetheless, the suit claims, when Hetrick was notified of this decision she refused to step down and wouldn’t leave the center's Chico office. It also says she demanded that board members leave the office and then called police.

The board members also claim that Hetrick or the others changed the locks of the center's locations on two separate occasions.