TOLEDO, Ohio — A former Toledo employee is suing both the city and a violence interrupter after she said she was sexually harassed and assaulted, and the city failed to stop it.
The woman accuses violence interrupter Isaac Miles, her supervisor, of harassing her starting in February 2023. The accusations describe instances of Miles exposing himself to the alleged victim, coercing her into giving him oral sex, forcible kissing, assault and a proposition to have sex with him and the mother of his children under threat of losing her job with the city, leading to quid pro quo.
The accuser said she was terminated by the city after reporting the sexual harassment four times. WTOL 11 does not name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they choose to publicly come forward.
The lawsuit states the woman reported this behavior four times to several administrators who failed to investigate Miles, including a report to the city's office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the human resources director in July.
She also alleges Miles interfered in a promotion opportunity and her attempts to transfer jobs so she wouldn't have to work with him and, on at least two occasions, threatened to terminate her job if she did not perform oral sex on him.
She states she was fired in August for falsifying doctor's notes for absence during a week in July.
About a week before she was terminated, the accuser says Miles requested she come to his office and then exposed his penis to her when she arrived, suggesting she perform oral sex on him. She says he then made a sexually harassing comment to her as she left his office.
About 30 minutes later, she says she returned to speak to him and "forcefully grabbed" her "and proceeded to drag her towards" his office while screaming at him to stop. She says she ultimately broke free from his grasp and encountered another supervisor as she fled and told him what happened, to which he allegedly responded, "B----, I didn't see [the Assault]. It didn't happen!"
The woman alleges when she reported Miles' assault and sexual harassment for a fourth time, she was "simply provided ... with the contact information for a therapist's office."
The accuser is requesting a jury trial, a return to a job within the city, and compensatory, monetary and punitive damages in excess of $25,000 per claim. There are seven claims, listed below:
Three counts against the city of Toledo allege gender discrimination, a hostile work environment on the basis of gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and quid pro quo sexual harassment, saying that the city "knew or should have known about Miles's sexual advances" and "failed to remedy Miles's misconduct or stop him from continued acts of sexual harassment."
Two counts against Miles are civil action for criminal acts of gross sexual imposition and civil action for criminal acts of sexual battery.
Two counts against both the city and Miles allege retaliation against her for reporting discrimination and harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Miles has not been charged with any crimes. He provided a statement Friday night in response to the allegations. The accuser's name has been removed from the statement to protect her identity.
"All such claims and allegations made by [the accuser] are completely false. I have always maintained professional standards of the workplace. (An) investigation involving all named parties was conducted and the conclusion of that investigation was that there was no record of any corroborating witnesses as stated by [the accuser]. There was also no record of reports of any such complaints ever being filed against me. Confidential interviews were conducted with each of the accused as well as other supporting witnesses and it was determined that there were no grounds for these claims. [The accuser] previously voiced that 'we(myself and the rest of the team) would have to interrupt her violence' because she was coming for us under the false notion that our actions/dutiful reporting led to her termination. This by the way was also proved by record to be inaccurate. [The accuser] drove by our workplace on several occasions after being terminated threatening myself and other team members yelling from her car window 'y'all gone have to pay for my job being lost.' There are several pieces of documentation that reflect [the accuser's] erratic behavioral patterns and tendency to falsify information."
The city provided the following statement:
"We take claims of harassment and discrimination very seriously, but due to the ongoing nature of this litigation we can’t comment specifically on this case."
The accuser's attorney, Fred Bean, has not yet responded to a request for comment.