CHARLESTON – A woman says she was subjected to “constant sexual comments, innuendos and sexual propositions” by coworkers and others while working at a trucking company.
Rachel Prater filed her complaint last month in Kanawha Circuit Court against Pennco Transportation, Nola Trucking, Vernell Williams, Dennis Pennington and Lee Rose. Williams was a directo supervisor at Pennco and is Nola’s president. Pennington was Prater’s direct supervisor at Pennco, and Rose worked for Nola at the same facility.
According to her complaint, Prater’s time at Pennco included sexual harassment by coworker and by employees of Nola because the companies shared a facility.
She says the conduct included requests for her to engage in a group sex, about the size of coworkers’ genitals and other blatant propositions. She says Williams and Pennington, both supervisors, knew about the sexual harassment but failed to protect her from it.
Prater says she was openly gawked at by male co-workers soon after being hired to work at the facility located in Nitro. The stares soon progressed to sexual comments, she says, such as, “Hey, you can come ride in my truck” and “I go a package for you.”
During her training with Rose, she says she endured his implied and direct sexual propositions and comments for about 12 hours a day. Those included suggestions of threesomes with him and his wife and bragging about the size of his penis.
When she complained about Rose’s behavior and comments, she was promised by Williams it would stop. But, she says it didn’t.
Prater also says she was not given the same work opportunities that included premium wages as male coworkers. She says she was told that happened “because you’re a female.” She was also told “females can’t drive.”
She says the almost daily sexual harassment, gender discrimination and discriminatory employment practices forced her to leave her employment on June 14, 2021.
Prater accuses the defendants of creating a hostile work with sexual harassment, aiding and abetting a hostile work environment, retaliation, gender discrimination and constructive discharge. She says she has suffered loss of dignity, embarrassment, humiliation, aggravation and emotional distress.
She seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
Prater is being represented by Rodney Smith and Alex Urban of Rod Smith Law in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Louis “Duke” Bloom.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 22-C-474
