SEXUAL HARASSMENT: LA Employees of American Apparel Also Files Sexual Harassment Suit

March 24, 2011

Los Angeles – Clothing company American Apparel Inc. and its chief executive Don Charney are once again in the middle of a sexual harassment lawsuit, this time from four female employees in LA, after officially filing the case in LA County Superior Court on Wednesday, reports said.

However, the company who is also dealing with another sexual harassment complaint in New York lashed out against 19-year-old Kimbra Lo, Alyssa Ferguson, Marissa Wilson, and Tesa Lubans-Dehaven, the plaintiffs of the case, saying that they are conspiring to “shake down” American Apparel. They said the women are merely doing this for money and that they have “voluminous evidence” to prove that all allegations are false.

Lo accused Charney of sending “sexual text messages” to her in July 2010, and of masturbating while speaking to her on the phone. She then ignored his calls and messages, until she was offered a modeling and photography job in December, requiring her to meet Charney in his home for discussion.

When she got there, he was allegedly only wearing a towel, and then started “violently kissing” Lo and forcing her to perform sexual acts. After hearing the story, her mother called the founder and asked him to stay away from her daughter, “whereupon Charney begged forgiveness and admitted he had a problem.”

The company released a statement Thursday, stating that Lo pursued a romantic relationship with Charney, and that there are love letters, e-mails, and “smoking gun” photographs to prove it. The plaintiffs’ lawyer Eric Baum, who is also representing the plaintiff from NY, said he is confident that the women are telling the truth, and that the company’s statement is “both irresponsible and false.”

An employee from NY, Irene Morales, filed a sexual harassment complaint against Charney earlier this month. She accused him of attempting to force her to do oral sex on him in his apartment back in 2008 when she was still 18. He also reportedly harassed her for months.

American Apparel said that Morales made a lot of “extortion-like threats to expose the company” before filing the suit, and has asked the court to send her case to confidential arbitration.