A former Kansas City Wizards employee has filed suit alleging that she and other female employees were subjected to “pervasive and regular” sexual harassment.
Kathryn Carver filed the lawsuit late Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court against the Major League Soccer team’s ownership group, OnGoal LLC; Greg Cotton, executive vice president and general counsel for OnGoal; and Robert Thomson Jr., the company’s vice president for marketing and communications.
“Defendant OnGoal’s place of business was permeated with inappropriate comments of a sexual nature directed to Ms. Carver and other female employees by defendants Thomson and Cotton,” the suit alleges.
After Carver complained about the harassment to other company officials, a memo was distributed threatening employees with termination if they communicated with outside lawyers about OnGoal’s employment practices and other issues, the suit alleges.
Carver, who worked as executive assistant to the president, said in the suit that she resigned her job last November after that memo was distributed.
OnGoal president Robb Heinemann said he hadn’t seen the complaint yet.
“Generally, we don’t comment on pending litigation,” he said. “I will say that we don’t tolerate harassment in the workplace, and we have policies in place to keep such things from taking place.
“We believe as the facts come to light, we will prevail.”
Among the allegations in the suit:
•Cotton and Thomson would review the Facebook and MySpace sites of prospective female employees to determine whether they were “hot enough” to be hired.
•Cotton allegedly said of one employee, “She is the dumbest person I have ever met, but she is worth keeping around for the scenery.”
•Male employees held “drafts” of young female employees with whom they would want to have sex.
•During a team-sponsored trip to Las Vegas, Thomson told Carver she was “hot,” complimented her physical attributes and said he wanted to have sex with her, she alleged.
Carver’s attorneys, Kirk Holman and Anne Schiavone, said they would have no comment beyond what was contained in the suit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
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