A federal judge in Pittsburgh has allowed most of the lawsuit brought by a county probation officer against a local judge to move forward.

U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon's order, issued Thursday, means that most of Crystal Starnes' lawsuit against President Judge Thomas Doerr, Deputy Court Administrator Thomas Holman and the Butler County Court system will proceed.

Judge Bissoon dismissed two of Starnes' claims, including Starnes' 14th Amendment Gender Discrimination claim and a second claim that Starnes' legal team had already dropped.

Of the gender discrimination complaint, “The Court finds that (Starnes) has failed to allege that Doerr directly participated in an individual discrete act of gender discrimination occurring within the two-year statute of limitation period,” Bissoon wrote.

“Accordingly, the court dismissed plaintiff's gender discrimination claim without prejudice, to the extent that plaintiff claims that Doerr's discrete discriminatory acts form the basis of it.”

In her lawsuit filed last October, Starnes claimed that Doerr hired her as a county probation officer after he started a five-year sexual relationship with her in 2005, calling it a “business relationship.”

Her lawsuit claims that Doerr continued to harass her after the sexual relationship ended in 2010.

Judge Bissoon found that the defendants' argument that Starnes had “contracted away her right to bring suit” was premature, despite Starnes signing a general release when she wanted to return to her job in the probation office.

Bissoon also found that at this early stage in the lawsuit, Starnes' hostile work environment claim “is still viable.”

Starnes is asking for a jury trial in federal court, but no date has been set for that to occur.