Colorado bar owner settles with former employees over sexual harassment allegations

CBS News

10 hours ago

The owner of a Greeley bar who allegedly spoke about female job applicants as unsuitable for hiring because they were "too ugly" or "not f***able" agreed to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit that was filed by six former employees.
James Jennings will pay $100,000 to the group, according to terms of the agreement.
The former employees accused Jennings of creating an overtly sexual and hostile workplace environment at Starlite Station, a Western-themed bar and dance hall which opened in November 2018. Their lawsuit, led by attorneys at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claimed often touched female employees with their permission, pursued relationships with female employees, and pressured female employees to let him sleep at their home.
"Unwelcome comments, unwelcome touching, the owner of the business touching women, making comments about female employees' breasts, buttocks, sex stereotypes," said Nathan Foster, a trial attorney with the EEOC, after the lawsuit's filing. "Our complaint alleges that that's a problem not only for the women who were talked about and who were discriminated against, but also for the male employees who didn't want to work an environment where that was the norm."
CBS
Jennings allegedly made inappropriate comments about some potential female employees being "too ugly" or "not f***able" to certain male employees. He also tried to engage the male employees in discussions about their sex lives. Those conversations included inquiries into whether the male employees were sleeping with any of the female employees.
Foremost among the men who objected was Gary DeJohn, the manager hired by Jennings to get the business launched.
"I stood up for women that needed to be stood up for," DeJohn said. "It was incredibly hard to deal with. There were times that I - the one with expertise - quit. I told him I wasn't going to put up with it. He actually fired himself when I quit."
But Jennings went back on that promise and returned weeks later, DeJohn said.
"It wasn't about money. It wasn't about being a business," DeJohn added. "I wasn't going to have my staff there drinking after hours and then sleeping there. That was a problem almost immediately."
The EEOC complaint states Jennings had sex after hours at the bar with an intoxicated female employee who had no ability to consent. The Greeley Police Department investigated the 2019 incident and filed no charges against him. The EEOC, however, claims the encounter was captured on a security camera in Jennings's office. Further, a number of employees were told by Jennings in "counseling memos" they had violated company policy by opposing his conduct. The female employee was subsequently terminated when she refused to sign company documents related to the sexual encounter, per the EEOC complaint.
The business temporarily lost its liquor license two months after the incident.
Another of the former female employees in the EEOC complaint believed she was fired from her position for refusing to have a sexual relationship with Jennings, according to a court document.
CBS
Two Starlite employees who were not part of the lawsuit backed the sexual harassment allegations in it. Jennings's sexual overtones, they told CBS Colorado in 2022 after the EEOC complaint was filed, began during the interview process prior to the bar's opening.
"I was like, 'Cool, I'll be here for an official interview tomorrow morning,'" said former employee Sophia McElroy. "He was like, 'Make sure you wear a low-cut shirt.'"
Hailie Duncan was 18 when she applied. She and McElroy both confirmed Jennings did not take action against customers who sexually harassed them, and forced them to wear uniforms they were uncomfortable with.
"He was like, 'You don't have to wear it, but you don't have to have a job here,'" said Duncan.
In a press release announcing the settlement, the EEOC stated Jennings retaliated against employees in the lawsuit by filing his own defamation suit against them. That is what spurred the EEOC, with the former employees' complaint in hand, to file its lawsuit against Jennings.
"This case demonstrates why owners should not think that they can escape liability simply by closing a business and filing retaliatory defamation lawsuits in an attempt to silence victims," stated Mary Jo O'Neill, regional attorney for the EEOC's Phoenix District Office (which includes Colorado), in the press release.
The EEOC also accused Jennings and his mother of using corporate funds from their company, 'Murica LLC, to pay a mortgage on a home, a personal loan and personal credit cards.
CBS Colorado reached out to Jennings for a response on the accusations and the settlement Sunday. No response has been received.
The two parties signed the settlement agreement June 5.
"For the five years that this has gone on," said a former female employee and plaintiff in the lawsuit who wished to remain anonymous, "and the damage that he has done, personally, mentally, and emotionally....$100,000 can't bring a life back."
That woman and DeJohn both confirmed Michael Chacon, a seventh member of the group who filed the EEOC complaint, took his own life three years ago. The Starlite ordeal was partly to blame, both said.
"He was one of the first to say, "I don't agree with what's going on here,'" DeJohn said, "and he tried to bring it up. We all have him to thank."
Starlite Station closed in 2021. The strip mall in which it was housed was demolished and re-developed in 2022.
DeJohn suggested anyone in the same position as he and the other Starlite staffers trust their instincts.
"You know what's right," he said. "Just do what's right. Eventually, you'll be on the right side of it.
"And don't be afraid."