New Jersey Coffee Shop Owner Vows to Fight Sexual Harassment Settlement

A coffee shop owner vowed Tuesday evening to fight a judge’s ruling that he verbally agreed to a $75,000 sexual harassment settlement filed by six female employees.

Under the terms of the settlement, $15,000 would be used to pay the state for sexual harassment training for employees. After three years $60,000 of the settlement would be dismissed if the owner complied with training. Sexual harassment lawyers can confirm that proper training can prevent some instances of harassment.

The state filed the suit in 2007 after six female employees accused Ronald Ford Jr., owner of City Coffee, of creating a hostile work environment. One of the women alleges that she was fired after reporting the incidents of harassment; sexual harassment attorneys call this retaliation.

The women allege that he would follow them not areas of the restaurant where he could not be seen by the surveillance cameras and made obscene and repeated sexual advances. According to the complaint, the work place was so intolerable that numerous female employees quit.

Following the announcement, Ford stated that he would challenge the settlement, and further stated that he “refused to be extorted.”  He refused to signed settlement documents this past summer. 

Allegations of sexual harassment are often not taken seriously by employers. They may feel that the accusers are being too sensitive, but sexual harassment lawyers have defended many people, who have serious mental injuries which can be attributed to their harassment.