Former Staffer Sues NC Democratic Part Over Sexual Harassment Settlement

The sexual harassment scandal against the North Carolina Democratic Party has resurfaced now that the former staffer is suing the organization for defamation.

The staffer, Adriadn Ortega accused the Party’s executive director Jay Parmley of sexually harassing him 2011. Ortega informed his supervisors of the harassment, but was fired in November of 2011, which he believes was retaliation.

Retaliation is one of the major issues that arise with workplace harassment and those individuals that are targeted in this way often hire sexual harassment attorneys in North Carolina to recoup their lost wages.

The NCDP and Ortega agreed to a settlement because the party leaders wanted to keep the incident quiet to avoid scandal ahead of the National Democratic Convention. The two entities had a non-disclosure agreement, but news agency The Daily Caller broke the story after they obtained email exchanges about the scandal, bringing it to light, forcing Democratic leaders in the state to speak publically about the story.

This violated the non-disclosure agreement and now Ortega has filed a defamation suit and breach of contract lawsuit against the NC Democratic Party. The first hearing for the defamation suit will be held within a few weeks.

Non-disclosure agreements are often agreed to by the victims of sexual harassment and their sexual harassment attorneys in exchange for monetary settlements.

Victims of sexual harassment generally just want the abuse to end and when their employers fail to do this their only recourse is to hire a North Carolina sexual harassment lawyer and hold their employers accountable.