CHARLESTON – A Cabin Creek woman says she was a victim of “severe and pervasive” sexual harassment by a Tudor’s Biscuit World co-worker.
Tonya Dennis filed her complaint May 19 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Better Foods Inc. doing business as Tudor’s Biscuit World and Edward Welch, who was the head cook at the Marmet location.
According to the complaint, Dennis began working at Tudor’s in March 2020. The following month, she says Welch began sexually harassing her. She says management knew Welch had a history of sexually harassing co-workers.
The harassment began, she says, with Welch repeatedly asking her out. She declined his romantic advances, but she says he continued making them. Then, she says he would “uncomfortably invade” her personal space.
“Sometimes he would sneak up behind her and get really close without her knowledge,” the complaint states. “She would not know he was there until she was startled by him upon turning around. …
“Welch further significantly escalated his harassment in or around the fall of 2021 when he began to touch her and brush up against her without her consent.”
Dennis says she reported Welch’s actions to shift leader Tonya Priddy, who didn’t take any action. In fact, Dennis says, Priddy told her to talk to Welch herself. When Dennis did that, she says Welch refused to stop the harassment. In fact, she says, he intensified his harassment.
A week later, Dennis says she made a second report to Priddy, who again failed to take action. A few weeks later, Dennis says she reported Welch’s harassment to General Manager Wendy Goodtuell, who “brushed off” the report and failed to take action.
Dennis says she reported Welch to Goodtuell again a week later, and Goodtuell said she’d tell District Manager Carol Dickens but “conceded that she could not guarantee it would go to Human Resources.” Also, Priddy told Dennis that Welch was a favorite of Dickens.
Eventually, Dennis said she had no choice but to retain legal counsel in an effort to stop the harassment and to remain employed.
On December 1, 2021, Dennis’ attorney wrote a letter to Tudor’s demanding it take action to stop Welch’s harassment. A few days later, Welch was transferred to another Tudor’s location.
A few days later, Dennis had a panic attack at work. Then, Tudor’s HR representative Tonya White-Woods visited the restaurant and spoke to Dennis and several co-workers. Dennis told White-Woods about Welch’s harassment and said she was “uncomfortable” because of the anxiety it caused her.
“Instead of comforting Ms. Dennis or expressing regret that Tudor’s had allowed the harassment to continue for so long, Ms. White-Woods blamed Ms. Dennis for the continuation of the harassment by admonishing her that she was supposed to come to her with complaints of sexual harassment, despite the fact that Ms. Dennis had, on at least four occasions, reported the harassment to her shift leader and the general manager of the restaurant,” the complaint states.
A few days later, Dennis’ attorney sent another letter to Tudor’s notifying it of a potential claim by Dennis for sexual harassment and requesting preservation of evidence. A few days after that, White-Woods returned to the restaurant for a staff meeting.
“Despite insinuating several days earlier that Ms. Dennis was at fault for the continuation of defendant Welch’s harassment because she did not report the harassment directly to Ms. White-Woods, she (White-Woods) told the group in the staff meeting that if anyone had any concerns, they should report them to their managers and the managers would report to her,” the complaint states. “White-Woods stared directly at Ms. Dennis several times when she was discussing sexual harassment during the staff meeting, including when she stated, ‘If anyone here is feeling uncomfortable, we don’t want you here. But we o need all of you because we are short-staffed.’”
Dennis said she felt targeted and humiliated in the staff meeting, and she says management retaliated against her by making her job “unusually more difficult and otherwise treated her poorly.” She said she was left with no choice but to resign on December 17, 2021.
She accuses the defendants of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment, constructive discharge as well as retaliation and reprisal in violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act.
Dennis says she suffered loss of dignity, embarrassment, humiliation, aggravation and emotional distress. She seeks judgment against the defendants, remedies afforded under the WVHRA, common law remedies, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
She is being represented by Michael P. Addair and Kurt E. Entsminger of Addair Entsminger in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-432