Law Firm Partner Sued For Sexual Harassment After “Disgusting And Dirty” Behavior During Company Christmas Party At Strip Club
First of all, I love that a law firm’s Christmas party was at a strip club. With regard to the woman who’s suing the firm’s partner for sexual harassment, while I don’t doubt that the partner is a creep, what in the world did the woman expect would happen when she voluntarily decided to go to a fucking strip club with a bunch of drunk people? Via ABA Journal:
A lawsuit accuses the managing director of a Fresno, California, law firm of taking firm employees to a strip club, where he simulated oral sex, paid for alcohol with a corporate credit card and encouraged an associate to place dollar bills in strippers’ panties.
The now-former associate, Michelle Ritchie, is the plaintiff in the July 1 sexual-harassment lawsuit. She says the incident happened after a Dec. 10, 2021, Christmas party at the workers’ compensation defense firm Yrulegui & Roberts in Fresno, California.
The party continued at a sports bar at the invitation of partner and Fresno managing director Joseph Yrulegui, according to the lawsuit. After several hours at the sports bar, Yrulegui “instructed” several employees to take Uber or Lyft to the strip club City Lights, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit says Yrulegui intentionally provided excessive alcohol to Ritchie “and subjected her to unwanted sexual contact by proxy. He encouraged and paid for a lap dance with a stripper and subjected her to his offensive simulated sexual acts with the various strippers. This was unwanted and done for the purposes of sexually gratifying Yrulegui, humiliating plaintiff and sexual grooming.”
Ritchie “had never been to a strip club before and did not realize how tacky and degrading it was for the women working there, herself and her fellow employees,” her lawsuit states.
While at the strip club, Ritchie and other employees discussed how “disgusting and dirty” Yrulegui’s behavior was, the suit says.
Additional details are here at ABA, including the fact that the woman’s father showed up at the strip club when he tracked her cell phone location and found her there.
