CHARLESTON – Two women say the owner of the Charleston location of Outback Steakhouse sexually abused and harassed them.
The women, identified as Jane Does, filed their complaints in Kanawha Circuit Court against Outback Steakhouse West Virginia and Ed Weible, who is the proprietor/manager of the Charleston Outback location.
“When we originally heard the facts of this case, it was obviously quite shocking,” attorney Travis A. Griffith told The West Virginia Record. “Outback is a restaurant that touts itself as a family gathering place.
Griffith
| Courtesy photo
"The fact that a middle-aged proprietor used his position and a combination of alcohol and illegal narcotics to attempt to obtain sexual favors from young ladies who could have been his own daughters is simply unconscionable. Sexual harassment and assault, dangling your employment as leverage, is something no human being should have to endure. This case is about a person’s right to basic human dignity.
“You will not find me dining at the Charleston Outback for the foreseeable future.”
According to the complaints, Weible is a middle-aged man with two teenage daughters. It also says he went through a divorce in 2021 and began spending more time in the restaurant bar area supervising his staff.
The complaints say Weible also began to verbally and physically approach young female staff members to proposition them to have a romantic and/or sexual relationship with him. The plaintiffs say it happened to both of them.
They say Weible began inviting himself to gatherings outside of work with the female staff members and began inviting them to his home and other locations outside of the workplace. They say he would provide them with alcoholic beverages and narcotics “to seduce young female staff members who worked for him to engage in amorous relationships with him.”
Those female staffers who did so endured inappropriate physical interactions, but they also received favoritism at work including scheduling preferences and other benefits, according to the complaint.
“Weible also used his power and control as owner and boss to divide and create discord amongst some of the young female staff … for the purpose of isolating each of them so that he could be alone with each of them at his discretion,” the complaint states. “Weible would often fondle, rub against and make sexually suggestive statements to the young female staffers at Outback.”
When the plaintiffs refused his advances, they say Weible punished them by not speaking to them during work, finding pretext to have middle management single plaintiffs out for public reprimand and humiliation in the workplace, encouraging other staff to exclude and harass them and removing their names from the work schedule.
Both plaintiffs says Weible’s actions caused them to be constructively and wrongfully discharged, forcing them to seek other employment.
The women accuse the defendants of sexual abuse, sexual harassment and quid pro quo harassment in violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act. They also accuse them of wrongful discharge and constructive discharge, negligent hiring, retention, training and supervision as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress.
They say they have suffered job loss, lost earnings, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, humiliation, embarrassment, shame and other general and special damages.
The plaintiffs seek compensatory damages, punitive damages, general damages, special damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
The woman are represented by Griffith of Griffith Law Center in Charleston and by Paul D. Ellis of Ellis Law Offices in Charleston.
Kanawha Circuit Court case numbers 23-C-1076 and 23-C-1096
