Employee Wins Sexual Harassment Claim Against Playboy
Posted by Courtroom View Network on Wed, Aug 25, 2010 @ 10:08 AM
In Crouch v. Playboy, Julie Crouch, a master control operator at Playboy TV who monitored the Playboy Channel for quality control, prevailed on her sexual harassment claim against co-worker Charles Dorn and Playboy.
Plaintiff attorney Mark Valencia replayed during closing argument the deposition testimony of Mr. Dorn conceding that he had kissed Ms. Crouch, whispered in her ear, used the word 'fuck' in her presence, and sat in her lap. A co-worker testified that Mr. Dorn had yelled at Ms. Crouch and referred to women as 'whores.'
"Julie Crouch took the stand," Mr. Valencia told the jury, "and testified that Mr. Dorn would approach her and whisper in her ears and proposition her. Mr. Dorn is saying that he would whisper into her ear, 'Hey, how's it going.'...Who's really going to believe that?...Mr. Dorn is not credible."
Mr. Valencia pointed out that four employees had approached human resources with complaints, and told the jury that Mr. Dorn had demonstrated a 'superiority complex' over women, and that the testimony showed numerous instances of inappropriate touching.
Mr. Valencia argued that Ms. Crouch had also suffered disability discrimination, because Ms. Crouch was severely ill while she worked at Playboy. According to Mr. Valencia, Ms. Crouch was teased about her condition, and that she had complained to her supervisors, but one of her supervisors teased her as well.
Playboy itself, said Mr. Valencia, failed to enforce its human resources policies of reporting and investigating harassment allegations. "We have supervisor after supervisor after supervisor seeing the conduct, and trying to do something, but they all have to go through Chere Johnson, so the managers failed and the supervisors failed," as did the Human Resources executives, Mr. Valencia told the jury, even after "a litany of exit interviews."
Mr. Valencia concluded with a clip from Mr. Dorn's deposition, in which he testified that no one from Playboy had ever told him that his manner of speech was inappropriate and that he had never been warned or disciplined for his behavior at Playboy.
For the defense, Morgan Lewis's Jason Mills told the jury, "Maybe the most interesting character trait of Ms. Crouch that you've been able to observe is her complete unwillingness to accept any kind of role in what we've been watching here. She blames everybody around her...But the fact of the matter is that Ms. Crouch was in full control all along because as she knew perfectly well, the only thing she needed to do was...actually just say to somebody, 'I'm not comfortable with what's happening here, I want it to be addressed,' and she knew perfectly well that it would be addressed immediately."
"The reason Ms. Crouch never raised that," Mr. Mills continued, "...is because nothing was happening...what Ms. Crouch is trying to do here is revise history...she tried to change that because ten months after she found out her position was eliminated, maybe she decided she needed some money..."
The jury found in favor of Ms. Crouch on her sexual harassment claim against Mr. Dorn and Playboy, and awarded compensatory damages of $182.5K, as well as punitive damages against Mr. Dorn of $10K.
Watch CVN's webcast of Crouch v. Playboy.