HUNTINGTON – The cases of three women who claimed their former employer and its CEO fired them for refusing to purchase a weight loss drug that is a Schedule IV narcotic for the executive have been settled.
Brandi Spurlock, Tobiya Bocook and Jennifer Cyrus had filed separate lawsuits last August in Cabell Circuit Court against Marsha Mattingly, individually and as managing agent for H. William Mattingly Corp., H. William Mattingly Corp. and GN Hearing Care Corp., doing business as Beltone.
The cases were consolidated and confidentially earlier this year, according to court records.
According to the complaints, the women worked for H. William Mattingly Corp. as telemarketers in Huntington.
According to the complaints, the women were instructed by supervisor Elisha Holley to go to Transformations Weight Loss & Clinic and obtain Adipex, a Schedule IV controlled substance, for Marsha Mattingly to ensure job security and to make extra money. They were told to pose as weight loss patients, given $150 to buy the pills and $50 for themselves.
When the women refused to do that, their employment was terminated, according to the complaints.
Spurlock’s complaint also states after she filed a claim for unemployment, Mattingly Corp. falsely claimed the reason for her termination was due to drama in her life interfering with her work, which Spurlock says is a complete fabrication.
Bocook says her unemployment benefits were denied because defendant H. William Mattingly Corporation said she was discharged for violating the company's internet usage policy.
The women were represented by James D. McQueen Jr. and Ralph J. Hagy of McQueen Davis PLLC in Huntington and Richard Wallace Weston of Weston Law Offices in Huntington.
Cabell Circuit Court case numbers 14-C-538 (Spurlock), 14-C-539 (Bocook) and 14-C-549 (Cyrus)