Tag Archives: sexual harassment

Sexual Harassment Settlements No Longer Confidential?

Harvey Weinstein. Matt Lauer. Kevin Spacey. Louis C.K. Sexual harassment has become such a prevalent topic over the past year, that upon reading those four names above, most people can immediately figure out what all four individuals have in common – they have been accused of, and to some extent admitted to, sexual harassment and/or […]

Emails May Sink Chicago’s Water Department

When someone experiences discrimination at work – whether on the basis of his race, gender, age, sexual orientation – the victim should go to the company’s leadership to address and remedy the discrimination. But what happens when the discrimination originates with the very leadership who is supposed to make sure it doesn’t happen in the […]

Sexual Harassment on the Job

We are frequently contacted by individuals who describe inappropriate and often vulgar conduct that they have experienced at work.  They inquire as to whether we believe they have a valid claim for sexual harassment.  In many instances, we have to advise them that we cannot assist them, despite the fact they have experienced highly offensive […]

Whitman County assessor faces sexual harassment lawsuit

Kip Hill The Spokesman-Review Whitman County’s longtime assessor is in federal court in Spokane this week, fighting a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by an employee. Joe Reynolds, who has served as assessor in Whitman County since 1991, described his office as “loose” and that employees “talked nasty at times,” according to court filings. Yet Brenda […]

St. Paul to settle police officer’s sexual harassment lawsuit for $60,000

By Emily Gurnon The city of St. Paul will pay a former police officer $60,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit she filed last year. Sgt. Aine M. Bebeau claimed that her juvenile unit supervisor, Cmdr. Eugene Polyak, made “inappropriate sexual statements to her” at work and that department brass retaliated against her when she […]

Dating app Tinder sued for sexual harassment

Jessica Guynn, USATODAY 9:55 p.m. EDT June 30, 2014 SAN FRANCISCO — Popular mobile dating app Tinder is being sued for sexual harassment and discrimination by a former marketing executive. Whitney Wolfe, Tinder’s former marketing vice president, claims she was subjected to a pattern of abusive behavior including inappropriate private messages from a company co-founder […]

Vulgar Language Must Be Viewed in Context in Sexual Harassment Case: Court

by Judy Greenwald Published: July 27, 2012 Pejorative terms do not automatically establish sexual harassment, but they do need to be viewed in context, says a U.S. appellate court. However, in Kimberly Passananti vs. Cook County, there was sufficient evidence to establish harassment based on the intended use of the word “bitch,” the 7th U.S. […]

Get Schooled Letter to Gwinnett: Look deeper into student sexual harassment

3:48 am July 20, 2012, by Maureen Downey Carolyn Garfein of Alpharetta is national president of the American Association of University Women. By Carolyn Garfein From our nation’s top college campuses to small towns in Florida, Texas, Minnesota, and, yes, Georgia, the painful stories of children and teens experiencing bullying and sexual harassment have filled […]

Reedsburg McDonald’s harassment suit settled for $1 million

Kim Lamoreaux, Times-Press The Reedsburg McDonald’s will pay $1 million to three former employees who sued for sexual harassment. Ten women will split $1 million in a settlement reached this week over sexual harassment of employees at the McDonald’s in Reedsburg. Poynette-based Missoula Mac Inc., the owner and franchisee of 25 McDonald’s, was ordered to […]

City questions injuries, but cop wins top disability benefits

By TIM NOVAK AND CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters tnovak@suntimes.com cfusco@suntimes.com July 16, 2012 12:46AM Weeks after she leveled sexual harassment charges against some co-workers 19 years ago, Chicago Police Officer Kimberly Miller-Shemash suffered what turned out to be a career-ending injury when someone didn’t replace the lug nuts on her squad car. Challenged over the […]

Former FOP Secretary Sues Union For Sexual Harassment

CHICAGO (CBS) – A woman who was a secretary for the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police has filed a federal sexual harassment suit against the union. The lawsuit goes into some salacious detail, using words we cannot use. It accuses FOP attorney Paul Geiger of asking then-secretary Marie Marrero, “How do you like this” as […]

CIA cracks down on sexual harassment in its ranks

Spy agency reacts to complaints of sexual harassment by women working in CIA war zones. Former officers say trysts are part of the agency’s culture. By Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times July 4, 2012, 3:04 p.m. WASHINGTON — Spurred by complaints from women working for the CIA in war zones, the spy service is stepping […]

Too many creeps see opportunity on buses, trains

BY DR. LAURA BERMAN drberman@bermancenter.com July 3, 2012 9:33AM Crowded buses and dirty train cars are just the beginning. Sexual harassment can be an issue, as is sexual assault in the form of unwanted touching, indecent exposure and public masturbation. This is especially true in Shanghai, China, where sexual harassment on public transportation has reached […]

Former Rams employee sues for age discrimination, sexual harassment

Posted by Mike Florio on June 21, 2012, 11:36 PM EDT As Chris Berman would say, once is an accident and twice is a trend. Or something. Last month, former Rams equipment manager Todd Hewitt sued the team for age discrimination. Now, former executive assistant Lory Fabian has sued the Rams and executive V.P. of […]

City Hall janitor sues for sexual harassment

CHICAGO (WLS) – A woman filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against a City of Chicago employee who allegedly took semi-nude photographs of her as she changed in his City Hall office. The woman claims she was working for Triad Consulting Services, a janitorial company assigned to clean City Hall, when the man offered her his […]

Report: Sexual abuse of female farmworkers common

By Tracie Cone, Published: May 16 FRESNO, Calif. — Female farmworkers across the United States are commonly sexually harassed and assaulted, in part because their immigration status makes them fearful of calling police, according to a report being released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch. The survey by the international rights group mirrors two previous reports […]

Utility Appeals Loss In Sexual Harassment Case

Consumers Energy is appealing a $300,000 verdict and thousands more in legal fees after a woman won a sexual harassment lawsuit. A federal judge in Grand Rapids recently awarded $684,000 in fees to Theresa Waldo’s lawyers. The case was filed in 2006 and went through two trials. Waldo said she was a victim of repeated […]

Overlooked and looked over: women veterans tell their story

by: John Bachtell May 1 2012 CHICAGO — With extraordinarily high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and skyrocketing suicides, US military veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq occupations urgently need a means to share experiences and deal with the pain and trauma of war. And the growing number of active duty and veteran women in […]

More CEOs resign amid controversy

MARK HURD, EX-CEO OF HEWLETT-PACKARD In late June 2010, lawyer Gloria Allred, on behalf of former marketing contractor Jodie Fisher, sent a letter accusing Hurd and HP of sexual harassment. A company investigation found no merit to her claims. Through the course of the investigation, though, HP said it discovered that Hurd had falsified some […]

Report finds many girls and LGBTQ students feel unsafe in Chicago public schools

by Lacy Schley April 12, 2012 Sexual harassment strikes nearly half of Chicago public middle and high school students, according to a report released Wednesday evening by Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE). And nearly 65 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer and questioning students feel unsafe, according to the same […]

Stonewalling The Public

Dark clouds hanging over Sunshine Week cast a shadow on the First Amendment What’s worrying to journalists is, after years of sitting largely idle on the books, the Illinois eavesdropping law is starting to produce arrests. A Chicago woman was charged under the law after recording police officers whom she thought were preventing her from […]

Jimmy’s Charhouse to Pay $205,000 to Female Employees Subjected to Sexual Harassment

Jimmy’s Charhouse of Elgin, an Elgin, Ill., steakhouse, will pay $205,000 to resolve a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced Wednesday. The EEOC sued Jimmy’s Charhouse on behalf of female employees who charged that they were sexually harassed by restaurant employees, including managers. The case, EEOC […]

Loop Tilted Kilt Sued for Sexual Harassment by 19 Women

Published : Friday, 10 Feb 2012, 12:46 PM CST Sun-Times Media Wire Chicago – Nineteen women have filed a federal lawsuit claiming they were sexually harassed and subjected to a raunchy and “humiliating” work environment at a Loop bar. The three-count suit filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday claims the owners of Tilted Kilt […]

Ill. restaurant settles sexual harassment lawsuit

The Associated Press CHICAGO — A company that owns a KFC and Taco Bell restaurant in Mendota has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit. In a news release Thursday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it filed a lawsuit that alleged a store manager harassed female employees for […]

Cain accuser’s former boyfriend corroborates harassment claims

By Justin Sink – 11/14/11 03:08 PM ET A Chicago-area pediatrician who used to date Sharon Bialek, the woman who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment following a dinner in July 1997, said at a press conference Monday that Bialek told him after the alleged incident that Cain had “touched her in an inappropriate manner.” […]

Cain to hold press conference on sexual harassment allegations

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS November 7, 2011 11:22PM WASHINGTON — Herman Cain says he will hold a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Phoenix to respond to the latest charges of sexual harassment brought by a Chicago woman who graphically described an incident she said took place in 1997. With her attorney Gloria Allred at her […]