Melbourne Rehab Facing Serious Allegations Of Sexual Harassment, Misconduct

A Melbourne rehab clinic is facing a lawsuit after one of their clients accused a staff member of sexual harassment. The client was immediately discharged from the sober living home. Another employee who corroborated the woman’s claim was subsequently fired from the clinic as well.

According to the lawsuit, the client was quarantined in a hotel room when a clinic employee visited her room several times to make sexual comments. The employee then offered the client several favors such as car rides and help with chores in exchange for sexual photos. The same employee is accused of distributing suboxone pills without authorization to clients.

Meanwhile, another employee was fired after he reported the conduct to his superiors. He is mandated by law to report such conduct to his superiors. He said the client entered his office crying and saying that the employee in question was offering her favors in exchange for sex. He was immediately terminated from his position. The employee is still listed as a member of the company.

Why defend this employee? 

In what universe does it make sense to defend an employee who is targeting vulnerable people for sexual exploitation, derailing their recovery, and committing several crimes? The company is probably in too deep so they’ve taken the position of denying the allegations and defending the employee. While this strategy wouldn’t work in every situation, recovering addicts in sober homes lack the social capital necessary to make believable allegations. The sober home likely knows this and believes that they if they get her in front of a jury, they can make her look bad. However, they did not expect that an employee would believe the woman and report the misconduct. Once the employee reported the misconduct, as is mandatory under the law, the clinic had two problems. They could still say that the woman was making the whole thing up and/or she believes things that aren’t real. They could claim that the employee erroneously believed the truth of her accusations even after they found no evidence to corroborate their claims.

In other words, it looks really bad, but they still have a position that is capable of being defended. They can say that they don’t believe there was any abuse, but even if there was, they didn’t know about it. They can say the employee was fired for failing to vet the claims of the resident before reporting it. There are a lot of things that they can say. But once you’ve dug yourself into the position of deny and defend, you have to maintain that position until you’re the last man on the sinking ship. Otherwise, the clinic is admitting that they had cause to suspect the employee but failed to address the issues and instead turned a deaf ear to complaints. That means that they placed their clients in harm’s way due to extreme negligence, failing to supervise their employees, and negligently entrusting them with a vulnerable population. In other words, they’re facing a suit that would drive them into Chapter 11 or worse.

Talk to a Jacksonville Sexual Harassment Attorney Today 

If you have been the victim of sexual harassment in the workplace, you need to begin creating a log of events and your employer’s response to those events. Call Jacksonville sexual harassment lawyer Carol Galloway today to set up a free consultation and we can begin discussing your next move today.

Resource:

floridatoday.com/story/news/2021/10/22/melbourne-drug-rehab-center-accused-firing-employee-who-reported-harassment/6105750001/