Woman victimized by domestic violence sues NC detective for sexual harassment

Statesville, NC- A North Carolina woman, who managed to get away from an abusive husband, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the Iredell County Sherriff’s Department and the detective working on her case. Suzanne Wick stated that the Detective working on her domestic violence case solicited her for sex and threatened to drop her case if she did not comply with his requests.

Wick said that in 2009, her husband held her at gunpoint, assaulted their children and had them living in fear. She finally got the courage to file a report and went to the Iredell County Sherriff where she was assigned to Domestic Violence Detective Ben Jenkins.

Wick said that Detective Jenkins began to stalk her, make sexually explicit comments to her, and once assaulted her when they were alone working on her case. According to the lawsuit, Wick declined the detective’s advances, but that made him more aggressive and he even threatened to drop her case.

Wick told his supervisor about the sexual harassment, but no action has been taken. Neither Jenkins nor the Sherriff’s Department has responded to the allegations, yet, they have thirty days to address the allegations.

Sexual harassment attorneys often encounter cases where a person with a powerful position takes advantage of a vulnerable person. It often takes the intervention of a sexual harassment lawyer to halt harassing behavior.

Victims of sexual misconduct can seek compensation for the abuse they suffer when they hire a sexual harassment attorney to work on their case.