ROMNEY – A paralegal has sued an attorney and her former employer for what she calls “pervasive,” “egregious” and “reprehensible” sexual harassment.
Devan Caldwell filed her complaint August 10 in Hampshire Circuit Court against Lawrence Sherman and Lawrence E. Sherman Jr. L.C., which is based in Romney.
“While she was employed by defendants, she was repeatedly subjected to extreme and cruel sexual harassment and general harassment at the hands of Lawrence Sherman, causing her irreparable harm,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff brings this civil action for damages arising from her constructive dismissal from her employment.”
Sherman
Sherman did not respond to requests for comment
Caldwell says Sherman created a hostile work environment by committing acts of sexual harassment to and in front of her. The electronic complaint includes copies of text and social media messages as well as a video Sherman sent to her.
She says Brian Vance, Sherman’s employee and/or law partner, knew of the behavior but “turned a blind eye” to it.
“At least one other employee of the law firm will not enter the building and works from home because she refuses to be subjected to the environment created by defendant Sherman through his conduct,” the complaint states. “This employee did not have to leave the employment of the law firm because she is married to the only other attorney working at the firm, Brian Vance.”
Caldwell says Sherman began his “campaign of sexual harassment” as early as January 2021, but she says she tried to endure the conduct to keep her job and because she believed that repeatedly telling Sherman to stop would cause him to do so.
She says it didn’t work.
“Caldwell finally left the employment of Lawrence E. Sherman Jr. LC the day after Mr. Sherman sent her a video of himself wherein he makes reference to his performance of sex acts with an inanimate sex doll while thinking of plaintiff, and wherein he tells her, among other things, that he would like to have sexual intercourse with both her and the wife of his law partner, Brian Vance,” the complaint states.
Caldwell says she had to get a Personal Safety Order on July 30 after asking Sherman to stop contacting her. After blocking his phone number, Caldwell says Sherman sent her more than a dozen text messages from a different number.
She claims Sherman has made defamatory public comments about her since she left the firm, including telling another member of the State Bar that he had been having sex with her and was paying her $15,000 a month to have sex with him.
“These comments … impute the plaintiff with criminal conduct,” the complaint states. “They further constitute an oral charge of unchastity, which, applied to a woman, and in combination with an imputation of criminal conduct, is actionable as defamation per se.”
The complaint calls the video Sherman sent to Caldwell “an example of sexual harassment that is outrageous in the extreme.” In the video, Sherman can be heard, among other things, asking Caldwell is she is “stoked” about him engaging in sex acts with a doll while thinking about her.
Other messages included in the complaint include Sherman wanting Caldwell to “blow” him and another telling her she didn’t need to fear having COVID-19 and losing her sense of taste because his penis “has no taste.”
She says Sherman had a pattern and practice of treating women working at the firm with disrespect.
Caldwell accuses the defendants of a hostile work environment through sexual harassment, constructive termination and defamation.
She says she has suffered severe and significant damages, including damage to her ability to earn future wages, emotional damage, mental anguish, embarrassment, psychological damage, humiliation, future medical bills and other injuries. She seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
Caldwell is being represented by Dante diTrapano and Christopher Hedges of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston. DiTrapano declined to comment on the case.
Both Hampshire Circuit Court judges have asked to be recused from the case because they know both the plaintiff and defendant, so they have asked Supreme Court Chief Justice Evan Jenkins to appoint another judge to hear the case.
Hampshire Circuit Court case number 21-C-32
