CHARLESTON – A man says he and other co-workers were “viciously sexually harassed” by a female supervisor.
David Stevens filed his complaint August 18 in Kanawha Circuit Court against The Lynd Company, Crystal Lewis and Michael Sarisky. The defendant company is in the rental business, and Lewis was Stevens’ manager. She was a property manager for the company. Sarisky is a regional manager.
According to the complaint, Stevens was a maintenance supervisor for Lynd from August 2020 until November 11, 2021, when he was constructively discharged. He notes that Lewis has a history of sexual harassment and/or sexually inappropriate conduct in the workplace that Lynd failed to investigate prior to hiring her.
Stevens describes Lewis’ sexual harassment of employees and supervisors as systemic, saying management failed to address it. He says Lewis’ direct supervisor Felicia Llanes-Maze heard such comments from Lewis “on a near-constant basis” and had authority to discipline her, but never did.
He says Lewis often used obscene and crude language in the workplace, and he says she smacked Llanes-Maze on her buttocks with an open hand.
In addition, Stevens says he was directly sexually harassed by Lewis, including inappropriate sexual comments he found “particularly bothersome.” He says Lewis routinely made comments about and to co-workers, including Llanes-Maze, and often talked about her sex life with her husband.
In early November 2021, Stevens said at least one employee reported Lewis to Lynd Director of Human Resources Viola Martin, who considered the allegations serious enough to remove Lewis from the workplace during the investigation.
At the same time, Lynd removed Maze as Lewis’ supervisor and moved the West Virginia properties to a region supervised by Sarisky. Stevens says he quickly warned Sarisky about Lewis and her behavior. But he says Sarisky was dismissive, making it “clear that he did not want to hear what Mr. Stevens had to say.”
Stevens says Sarisky refused to remove Lewis from the workplace during the investigation into her actions despite Martin’s recommendation to do so. He also says Martin allowed Sarisky to be the “boots on the ground” for the investigation into the reports of Lewis’ actions.
When Sarisky showed up at the Cross Lanes office for a meeting about the situation, Stevens says he was not allowed to voice his concerns.
“As soon as Mr. Stevens stood and began to speak about defendant Lewis, defendant Sarisky shut him down and would not let him address the issues,” the complaint states. “Knowing that defendant Sarisky had previously been dismissive when Mr. Stevens had shared issues about the way defendant Lewis addressed employees, Mr. Stevens knew it would be pointless to attempt to discuss defendant Lewis with Mr. Stevens.”
Stevens says Sarisky then took the employee who had reported the sexual harassment on a drive and told him to “grow a pair” and to “drop it.”
Stevens says Sarisky avoided him and never contacted him to allow him to voice his concerns, noting he “was essentially frozen out of the workplace by his supervisor’s supervisor.”
As a result, Stevens said he felt as if he had no real choice but to leave the job. He did so on November 11, 2021.
Later, Stevens says Martin found Lewis had engaged in multiple serious violations of the company’s sexual harassment policy and recommended she be terminated or at least suspended by Sarisky, who refused to do so. But, Martin did suspend her for three days, which was all she could do as HR director. Stevens says Lewis sexually harassed at least one more employee after her suspension.
Stevens accuses the company and Lewis of creating a hostile work environment with sexual harassment, and he accuses all of the defendants of retaliation, negligent hiring and constructive discharge.
He seeks compensatory damages for loss of dignity, embarrassment, humiliation, aggravation, emotional distress and economic losses that include lost wages and benefits. He also seeks pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees and court costs.
Stevens is being represented by Rod Smith and Alex Urban of Rod Smith Law in Charleston. They also represented four other plaintiffs who filed similar lawsuits against Lynd and Lewis, among others, last year. Each of those cases were settled in mediations earlier this summer.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-731