SEATTLE (Legal Newsline) - A Seattle-area marijuana dispensary is liable for firing an employee who was zip-tied and held at gunpoint at work and later complained a store employee sexually harassed her, a Washington appeals court has ruled.
A little more than a month after she started work as a counter salesperson or “budtender” in June 2016, Makenna O’Meara and two fellow employees were the victims of an armed robbery. The company’s chief executive Ryan Kunkel, store manager Ramon Martinez and security chief Steve Round came to the store while police were still there and discussed the robbery with employees, offering them paid time off.
O’Meara returned to work the following day to discuss the robbery with co-workers but began to feel uneasy when she realized she was where she’d been zip-tied and threatened with a gun 12 hours before. Round asked her if she wanted to go outside for a walk, O’Meara said, and once behind the store began rubbing her shoulders in a sexually suggestive manner and said she needed a strong man and he could be her “big rock.”
Round also allegedly told O’Meara he could get her a safer job in inventory, and after a meal with drinks at a Mexican restaurant and smoking some marijuana, O’Meara said Round sexually harassed her. O’Meara called Martinez in tears the next day about the incident and Martinez texted her later saying “he will just disappear. I am so sorry.”
O’Meara went back to the store the following day to buy marijuana with her employee discount but Martinez told her to leave, saying he was about to fire Round. Round sent her text messages, including one saying he knew she had reported him and he was going to resign. O’Meara said she was so traumatized by the texts that she attempted suicide, taking 20 to 30 anti-anxiety pills.
A few days later she called the detective who had investigated the robbery, gave a statement alleging sexual assault and obtained a protection order against Round. On August 17 Martinez fired O’Meara, saying she missed two shifts of work. Martinez later sent O’Meara a text saying “Rond had definitely harassed her and that Ryan Kunkel had ordered her fired,” the court said.
O’Meara sued in 2018 and in January 2020 a trial judge ruled that she had been subject to quid quo pro sexual harassment and had been illegally fired. The judge ordered have a Heart to pay damages and legal fees.
Have a Heart appealed, challenging O’Meara’s credibility, Round’s status as an employee and other findings of the trial court. The Division One Court of Appeals upheld the verdict in a July 19 decision.
The appeals court refused to revisit the credibility of O’Meara’s testimony, ruling that it could not reopen findings of fact by the trial court. Have a Heart also challenged as hearsay O’Meara’s testimony about comments Round made to her. But the appeals court said the hearsay rule only covers statements which, if true, would be relevant to the case. Round’s statements to O’Meara didn’t have to be true to be relevant, the court explained; whether or not he could get her a better job in inventory, it was evidence of quid pro quo harassment.
Have a Heart also said Round wasn’t a true employee with management responsibilities, but an independent contractor. The appeals court said that didn’t matter either, since employees thought he had the power to hire and fire and testified he was close to Kunkle.
“Finally, substantial evidence supports the trial court’s finding that there was a causal link between O’Meara’s reporting of Round’s actions and her subsequent termination: O’Meara had a history of satisfactory performance prior to her termination, and the termination followed immediately after she reported Round to Have a Heart,” the court concluded.