American Apparel CEO Faces Four More Accusers
Image by Getty Images
Less than a month after an ex-employee sued him for sexual harassment, four women are banding together in a similar case against American Apparel CEO Dov Charney.
According to Courthouse News Service, the quartet’s lead plaintiff “claims Charney sexually assaulted her when she went to his home for an interview. Three other women say they can’t describe in detail what happened to them because they signed confidentiality agreements that Charney requires of all American Apparel employees.” The same plaintiff alleges that after left the company, “Charney sent her inappropriate sexual text messages and called her, saying ‘he was masturbating on the phone while they spoke,’ according to the complaint.”
The complaint, as reported in Courthouse News Service, alleges an apparent sexual assault that left the lead accuser “traumatized and terrified.” All four women also contend that arbitration and confidentiality agreements they signed with the company are invalid, Courthouse News Service says.
Meanwhile, the mustachioed shmatte honcho is playing hardball with another accuser. As the Forward reported on March 9, 20-year-old Irene Morales has sued Charney for making her his “sex slave” and “sodomizing her” on her 18th birthday.
But today’s New York Post reports that Charney’s lawyer contends Morales herself had lascivious intentions. The young woman, who’s seeking $260 million in damages, sent her then-boss “40 naked pictures of herself, with the titillating promise ‘Daddy’s got a little naughty girl waiting for him,’” The Post reports.
The photos, the Post says, “are attached to the salacious e-mails sent under the name Irene Julia. Charney’s lawyer, Stuart Slotnick, claims Irene Julia is Irene Morales.” Morales “stalked [Charney] for years” and is now “trying to shake down the company,” according to Slotnick.
Not exactly, says Morales’ attorney. “We have no way to verify the e-mails or photos in question or if it is just more of American Apparel’s propaganda. However, it is not unusual for victims of sexual harassment or assault to grow so demoralized that they feel the only value they offer is as a sexual object.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
