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Employee suing for sexual harassment


ohiocoasterfan
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On another occasion while she was in his truck with him, Nelson began driving aggressively at high speeds, "putting [her] safety at extreme risk," according to the lawsuit. 

Why in the world she even be hanging out with him on her own time?

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Complicating the matter is the Coaster Crew Carpenters are unionized, so it will add a layer into the investigation.  In my previous career, I managed a small company.  I came into the job with an outstanding sexual harassment complaint.  She had filed a complaint with the state attorney general who found no basis for the claim.  She then found a lawyer to take the suit privately.  We hired an attorney who basically closed the case very quickly, but we had to go through almost a year of discovery.  She named me as a defendant because I had fired her (she was a no show no call several times, she took company property (vehicle) home without permission, she did not try to meet sales goals, etc).  I was dismissed in the first week because of the diligent records I kept.  She named about ten other people as defendants, even a server at an eatery she took a client to.  All were dismissed except the business early on.  After almost 150$K in legal defenses, the judge threw her suit out for lack of merit.  We were awarded attorney fees but did not collect because it would have forced her to lose her home and car and she had children to support.  

All that to say, I am sure KI will defend themselves vigorously.  The union will defend its' member.  I hope the victim has a plethora of documentation and witnesses.  The story does not mention anything about HR, so I hope she involved them.  The story is either true or false, I hope it's false but unfortunately, sexual harassment is still an issue in today's workplace.

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4 minutes ago, standbyme said:

On another occasion while she was in his truck with him, Nelson began driving aggressively at high speeds, "putting [her] safety at extreme risk," according to the lawsuit. 

Why in the world she even be hanging out with him on her own time?

I'd conjecture it was a work truck on the property.

 

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1 hour ago, standbyme said:

On another occasion while she was in his truck with him, Nelson began driving aggressively at high speeds, "putting [her] safety at extreme risk," according to the lawsuit. 

Why in the world she even be hanging out with him on her own time?

My guess is that this was on company time.

Very unfortunate incident. I hope it is resolved quickly.

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4 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

My guess is that this was on company  time.

It’s the fact that it says “his truck”...and not the “park’s truck” that seemed odd to me...but of course we do not have all of the details...so I am by no means judging.

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1 hour ago, standbyme said:

On another occasion while she was in his truck with him, Nelson began driving aggressively at high speeds, "putting [her] safety at extreme risk," according to the lawsuit. 

Why in the world she even be hanging out with him on her own time?

A lot of times in an abuser/abused relationship, the victim feels stuck and/or scared to reject the advances in fear of harsher retaliation. This is actually quite common with sexual harassment.

But it doesn't matter. Either way, IT IS NOT OKAY. 

I hope the abuser and the supervisor who ignored her pleas spend the rest of their lives in the unemployment line.

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Sexual harassment is very difficult to prove absent of: witnesses, email, video etc.

It is also interesting that the lawsuit was filed.  Typically if there is any merit to the accusations, the company being sued would want to settle before the lawsuit hits the courts.  We only hear a fraction of the sexual harassment allegations & settlements.

If any of this is true, the immediate supervisor should be held responsible as he did not go to HR with the allegation(s).

On a side note- if you are in a difficult situation, be sure to email your direct supervisor & Bcc your personal email account.   And- DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT immediately!!!  You will never remember the exact details days, weeks, months, years later.  If your direct supervisor does nothing, go above their head.  If you do have a personal one-on-one verbal meeting, send a follow-up email with all the details discussed.

Nobody will cover your butt better than yourself!

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6 minutes ago, Joshua said:

Either way, IT IS NOT OKAY. 

I hope the abuser and the supervisor who ignored her pleas spend the rest of their lives in the unemployment line.

Yeesh, I'm glad I don't live in your world of judge, jury, and executioner. Just what we need--every criminal having to live off the government teat to live out the rest of their miserable life. Who do you think is going to pay for that??...Guess what, we all do.

We suck in this country at fully rehabilitating criminals, it is all about "doing their time" and then dropping them out of the system to figure out how to get back into society.

To be clear, I am defending no-one in this particular case.  Those accused may be the scum of the earth, but let's allow due process for everyone involved.

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2 hours ago, Maddog said:

Those accused may be the scum of the earth, but let's allow due process for everyone involved.

Exactly. We don’t even know if any of this is true yet. I’m definitely not saying it’s false, but I’m also not saying it’s true, either. It’s all allegations at this point.

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It’s the fact that it says “his truck”...and not the “park’s truck” that seemed odd to me...but of course we do not have all of the details...so I am by no means judging.
In trades, the workers generally treat their work vehicle as their own. My employers each had their own assigned vehicles and they took great pride in personalizing them (within policy) and maintaining them. I'd say it's similar with the trades at KI.

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1 hour ago, Snowball said:

Exactly. We don’t even know if any of this is true yet. I’m definitely not saying it’s false, but I’m also not saying it’s true, either. It’s all allegations at this point.

The problem with this kind of talk is that it does more to help the abuser than it does the victim. Funny how a) people are more upset about my statement (and the notion of employment coming from taxes -- or even silly things like a giga not being big enough) than that someone was sexually harassed and b) how quick people are to assume the accused is innocent and that the accuser might be lying in a case like this. I honestly mean no offense here, but indifference is a big reason why sexual harassment is still common in the workplace and why people still get away with it to this day. 

 

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1 hour ago, Joshua said:

The problem with this kind of talk is that it does more to help the abuser than it does the victim. Funny how a) people are more upset about my statement (and the notion of employment coming from taxes -- or even silly things like a giga not being big enough) than that someone was sexually harassed and b) how quick people are to assume the accused is innocent and that the accuser might be lying in a case like this. I honestly mean no offense here, but indifference is a big reason why sexual harassment is still common in the workplace and why people still get away with it to this day. 

 

I think a lot can be said in that this is a lawsuit against a corporation seeking financial gain vs a criminal charge against the actual person. One requires you to go to court and takes proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The other requires only a preponderance of evidence and, more often than not, is just settled out of court by the corporation with a financial settlement. I'm not saying it didn't happen. But the accuser here said it went on for 9 months and didn't press charges and that's always a red flag to me. 

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4 hours ago, Joshua said:

The problem with this kind of talk is that it does more to help the abuser than it does the victim.

So it's a "problem" when people simply point out that due process is important but it's totally fine for you to presume someone is guilty and make statements about punishments deserved for said unproven claims? That's interesting. 
 

4 hours ago, Joshua said:

Funny how a) people are more upset about my statement (and the notion of employment coming from taxes -- or even silly things like a giga not being big enough) than that someone was sexually harassed

Implying that people are more upset by your post (and those other unimportant things that nobody brought up) than the fact that someone was potentially sexually harassed is just ridiculous. 

4 hours ago, Joshua said:

 b) how quick people are to assume the accused is innocent and that the accuser might be lying in a case like this.

There's a major difference between someone thinking "they didn't do it" versus believing in the concept of innocent until proven guilty. But it's funny you have a problem with people jumping to conclusions and assuming someone's innocent (even though they're simply defending due process) while you did that exact same thing in your very first post in this thread by jumping to the conclusion that the man is guilty. Funny how that works. 

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11 hours ago, fryoj said:

 But the accuser here said it went on for 9 months and didn't press charges and that's always a red flag to me. 

There are many reasons why it takes people so long to come forward. Fear, embarrassment, shame, or the thought that no one would believe you. Sometimes it is because they feel powerless and/or they feel their abusers has something they can use against them. Sometimes the abuser actually backs off for a while before starting things up again or the behavior is gradual and gets worse over time. And there's always those situations that start off mutual until a boundary is crossed and one person no longer feels comfortable and the other won't back off. 

Also to be fair, she allegedly reported this behavior to a higher-up and nothing was done about it. So there's that. 

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5 hours ago, Joshua said:

There are many reasons why it takes people so long to come forward. Fear, embarrassment, shame, or the thought that no one would believe you. Sometimes it is because they feel powerless and/or they feel their abusers has something they can use against them. Sometimes the abuser actually backs off for a while before starting things up again or the behavior is gradual and gets worse over time. And there's always those situations that start off mutual until a boundary is crossed and one person no longer feels comfortable and the other won't back off. 

Also to be fair, she allegedly reported this behavior to a higher-up and nothing was done about it. So there's that. 

I can tell you have a personal connection to this issue, and that's fine. But the accused has rights too. "To be fair" you've already convicted the guy and his supervisor without ever getting their story to see if there's any truth to this. Maybe her story is 100% true. Maybe it's half true. Maybe it's a complete distortion of the truth. The problem with how she has gone about this, the people she's accusing have already been named in public and have been pretty much convicted by people like you, but will never get a chance to defend themselves in court. KI will settle this out of court to make it go away. It doesn't matter if it's completely made up. Paying her and her lawyers off will be cheaper than fighting it in court and the court of public opinion. That's my problem with this. If she's telling the truth, go file charges against the guy. Don't just go after the one with deep pockets. If someone did this to my wife or daughter, I'd want to see him in jail. 

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I'd venture a guess that she has named him, the supervisor, any number of managers, and up the food chain. I'd also guess she is suing the Kings Island Company LLC (or whatever entity KI is legally incorporated as) as well as Cedar Fair. The employees and former employees are likely being represented by the company as it took place in an employment capacity. Look for a quick settlement, with no further follow up, or a long period of discovery if the company chooses not to settle.

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1 hour ago, shark6495 said:

Victim blaming at the all time high in this thread. Defending KI?

Let the courts have at it but don’t dismiss the victim because she took too long to take it to court.




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Yeah that’s what’s bad about being on the outside looking in. Either the conversation goes towards victim blaming or the accused is guilty until being proven innocent. Hopefully this is all resolved quickly.

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11 hours ago, shark6495 said:

 but don’t dismiss the victim because she took too long to take it to court.
 

Agreed. Due process is a given. Bringing it up seems unsympathetic. What if this happened to someone you care about? A little empathy goes a long way and if you can't do that, just don't come in this thread. Especially if you are here to actively mock people who are defending the accuser. Regarding a sexual assault case, that's really not a good look to have.. 

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I know a lot of lawyers and have several in my family. They likely made a private demand against the company to start. The demand was probably 5 or 10 times more than they were willing to accept (that’s how they negotiate). KI probably balked at their demand or dragged their feet. Said lawyer then threatened to go public with the allegations which would in turn harm KI more. That’s where we are at now. It’s an attorney power move.

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