Man Wins $2.4 Million in Court After Being Sexually, Racially Harassed at Work [Picture, Video]

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According to The Cook County Record, Robert Smith is an African American who used to work as a butcher at Rosebud Farmstand, a grocer on Chicago’s south side. Smith alleged that his Latino coworkers used to grab his genitals, slap his butt, and simulate homoerotic acts. They would also use racial and $exual vulgarity around him. He said he was frequently called a “monkey” and told to “go back to Africa.”

Smith said that when he complained to his managers, Rocky Mendoza and Carlos Casteneda, the main defendants in the lawsuit, not only did they not stop it, but they joined in the harassment.

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After Smith filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint, his co-workers vandalized his car and made threatening gestures that worried him to the point that he quit the job. He decided to file a lawsuit in 2011.

Smith’s attorney noted that other black people were harassed at the store but did not come forward. “Unless people file a lawsuit or take action, harassers will continue to create a hostile working environment and harass. We need more people like Mr. Smith to take a stand and fight for what is right.”

The jury agreed. According to The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, they awarded Smith “$250,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages on each of three claims — sexual harassment, racial harassment and retaliation”. 

An additional claim made under the Illinois Gender Violence Act resulted in the jury ordering Castenada to pay $50,000 in compensatory and $100,000 in punitive damages. The same jury ordered Mendoza to pay $2,500 in compensatory and $5,000 in punitive damages.

“I think the jury wanted to send a message: When you go to work, you don’t surrender your body,” Robert Smith’s attorney said.

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