On Dec. 14, the United States settled their federal civil rights lawsuit against Centanni. Now, Centanni will pay $4.5 million as part of the settlement. According to the New York Times, if the settlement is approved by a judge, this case will become the largest settlement the Department of Justice “has ever secured in a case involving sexual harassment in housing.” Also according to the NYT, the bulk of the settlement is expected to go to the victims. Centanni is also facing separate criminal charges. 

Kennedy Hunt P.C. applauds the Department of Justice for advocating for the victims of Centanni. As a civil rights law firm, we are committed to the belief that all people deserve access to fair housing, free of coercion, harassment, and assault. If you or someone you know has been a victim of housing discrimination, our skilled attorneys at Kennedy Hunt, P.C. may be able to help you. Fill out a questionnaire so we can understand your claim. 

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Throughout her entire employment, our client was subjected to a magnitude of unwanted sexual comments by Mr. Mahurin. Mr. Mahurin sexually harassed our client through comments, jokes, lewd insinuations and advances. Things worsened every time she told Mr. Mahurin to stop or that she would not participate in his jokes and lewd comments. Our client received worse treatment than other female coworkers that allowed Mr. Mahurin’s conduct toward them and did not rebuff his advances. Another manager, Ms. Henson, began making work environment unbearable for our client, doing things that made it increasingly difficult for our client to perform her job duties. Our client reported the harassment from Mahurin at the end of March 2018. She was demoted and moved out of her office the following day. Our client was terminated three months later. 

By subjecting our client to such a hostile work environment, the County of St. Francois violated the Missouri Human Rights Act. The County was aware of the actions of Mr. Mahurin but did nothing to remedy the ongoing harassment and misconduct. Instead, once the new prosecutor in St. Francois County was appointed, our client was offered her job back and was told she should not have been fired. But the job was promised on the condition she opt not to sue St. Francois County. Our client denied. Our client is seeking damages, including lost wages and benefits, reinstatement, front wages, garden variety emotional distress damages, compensatory damages, punitive damages, pre- and post- judgment interest and attorney’s fees and costs. 

Tony Messenger, columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, recently published an article on the lawsuit. Vice writer Jelisa Castrodale wrote about this as well. For further information, please contact attorney MaryAnne Quill at 314-880-4463 or mquill@tkennedylaw.com. If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual harassment in the workplace, our skilled attorneys at Kennedy Hunt, P.C. may be able to help you. Fill out a questionnaire so we can understand your claim.

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Our client began working for the Belleville Police Department on July 20, 2015 as a secretary in the Operations Division. Captain Moody was her direct supervisor. Our client asserts that Moody and other department employees frequently made sexual jokes and comments loudly in her presence, making it difficult for her to concentrate on her work. In 2017, after she attended a sexual harassment training, Moody began making sexual comments about our client’s voice. This created an environment where our client felt as if she could not speak out loud for fear of being sexualized and teased. Our client claims that Moody continuously harassed, degraded, and humiliated her in front of other employees. 

In 2018, our client reported Moody’s conduct to a member of human resources. Afterward, our client was assigned to temporarily work in the records department. When she was hired in 2015, Moody told her that he punished employees he did not like by sending them to the records department. While in this department, our client met a colleague who was sent to records after complaining about Moody’s sexual misconduct. 

When our client returned from the records department, she endured worse treatment from Moody. On one occasion, Moody called our client into his office and directed her to sign the sexual harassment form in front of him. Understandably, our client wanted to review the information on the document before signing it, which led Moody to become visibly upset. He yelled and slammed his fists on the desk in a threatening manner. The next day, Moody threatened our client, saying that he would not write her a good review unless she signed the form.

After this, our client complained about Moody’s behavior to Ms. Favre, the director of human resources. Favre informed our client that Clay was “disappointed in her” for complaining about Moody. Still, an investigation ensued, which resulted in the department moving our client to an office on the third floor and took no action against Moody, which did not make our client feel safe. Our client requested additional measures to keep her safe from Moody. No measures were put into place and instead Favre questioned our client on if she was quitting her job. In October 2018, our client received a letter from Defendant Clay stating that she voluntarily resigned from her job. The lawsuit seeks lost wages and benefits, reinstatement, front wages, emotional distress damages, compensatory damages and punitive damages.

On May 29, 2020, Moody filed a motion to dismiss. On June 2, 2020, the City of Belleville and Clay filed a motion to dismiss. The court denied both motions. 

This case is ongoing. For more information, contact attorney MaryAnne Quill at mquill@kennedyhuntlaw.com.  If you or someone you know has been a victim of employment issues, our skilled attorneys at Kennedy Hunt, P.C. may be able to help you. Fill out a questionnaire so we can understand your claim.

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But, according to recent data, the majority of sexual harassment and assault cases filed by employees against their employers in this country end up being dismissed by judges. In fact, according to data from NPR, only three to six percent of these cases appear in court for trial. This is a staggering statistic in comparison to a study conducted by Stop Street Harassment. The nonprofit organization has found that 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men in the United States have experienced sexual harassment sometime in their life.

The Kennedy Hunt, P.C. is skilled in representing victims of sexual violence. We want to fight for these individuals. We want to change these statistics.

The NPR article, Sexual Harassment Cases Often Rejected By Courts, details the history of sexual harassment cases. According to the article, five to 15 percent of women report instances of sexual harassment they experience in the workplace, while an NBC survey show a quarter to half of women experience this harassment.

Our expert attorneys are prepared to represent victims of sexual violence — we want to hear from you. Our experienced attorneys at the Kennedy Hunt, P.C. want to hear from you. If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual harassment or assault, contact us.

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