Employment Harassment: Engineer Harassed, Settles with Trinity Broadcasting

March 30, 2010

Orange County – A gay broadcast engineer and the world’s largest religious broadcasting company has reached a confidential settlement on the harassment lawsuit filed against the company last March, reports said.

The lawsuit which was initially filed in Orange County and was later moved to a federal court describes the discrimination and harassment that Brian Dugger experienced while working under Paul Crouch Jr.

Dugger reportedly had a good working relationship with Crouch senior since he began working in 1993 with the company which was then located in Nashville. The defendant’s father was said to have asked Dugger to continue working for the company after it moved to Southern California in 2001.

Once in California, Paul Crouch Sr. became less involved with the company and his son, the defendant, started harassing Duggar for his sexual orientation.

Duggar alleged that he was denied of promotion and was not receiving the proper employment benefits under the California employment laws. Aside from this, he reportedly suffered abuse and was taunted by Crouch Jr. in front of other workers.

Duggar initially sought $ 650,000 for special damages including emotional distress and lost wages aside from the $1.9 million for punitive damages. Both parties declined to comment on the details of the settlement.