A jury in St. Louis, Mo., has decided that the Aaron’s Inc. department store chain must pay a former customer service representative $95 million in what her lawyer said may be the largest sex harassment verdict, ever.
A cap on damages in federal sexual harassment cases will reduce Ashley Alford’s award to about $41.6 million, according to stltoday.com. Aaron’s lawyers said they would appeal.
Why so much? Let’s see. According to court testimony, Alford suffered through more than a year of escalating harassment from the general manager of the Aaron’s in Fairview Heights, Mo., Richard Moore, culminating in an incident in which he reportedly threw Alford to the ground, lifted her shirt and masturbated over her as he held her down. On another occasion, Moore is said to have sneaked up behind Alford and hit her in the head with his penis. You won’t be surprised to learn that Moore is facing criminal charges in connection with his alleged behavior.
Aaron’s disputed Alford’s version of events and attorneys for the company said the verdict was that of “a classic runaway jury.” The $1B firm, with profits of $118M in 2010, has about 1,800 stores and more than 10,000 employees.
If you’re remotely inclined to think the jury awarded Alford too much money—and we are not—consider that most of the award is for punitive damages, which are for punishing the company in some meaningful way for allowing what happened to happen. A jury is supposed to set an amount that will hurt, in such cases.
A cap on damages in federal sexual harassment cases will reduce Ashley Alford’s award to about $41.6 million, according to stltoday.com. Aaron’s lawyers said they would appeal.
Why so much? Let’s see. According to court testimony, Alford suffered through more than a year of escalating harassment from the general manager of the Aaron’s in Fairview Heights, Mo., Richard Moore, culminating in an incident in which he reportedly threw Alford to the ground, lifted her shirt and masturbated over her as he held her down. On another occasion, Moore is said to have sneaked up behind Alford and hit her in the head with his penis. You won’t be surprised to learn that Moore is facing criminal charges in connection with his alleged behavior.
Aaron’s disputed Alford’s version of events and attorneys for the company said the verdict was that of “a classic runaway jury.” The $1B firm, with profits of $118M in 2010, has about 1,800 stores and more than 10,000 employees.
If you’re remotely inclined to think the jury awarded Alford too much money—and we are not—consider that most of the award is for punitive damages, which are for punishing the company in some meaningful way for allowing what happened to happen. A jury is supposed to set an amount that will hurt, in such cases.
This is disgusting! He practically raped her (this was very close), this man needs to be thrown in jail.
I agree!