Gov. Tony Evers and his allies point to sexual harassment lawsuits against Tim Michels’ firm as evidence that his Republican challenger is ineligible for office, citing words in Evers’ campaign TV ad “Culture comes from the top.”
When asked for details, the Evers campaign provided the Wisconsin State Journal with documentation of one sexual harassment lawsuit by a woman in Wisconsin in 1998, one in Pennsylvania in 2012, and one in Wyoming in 2012. Did.
“There have been five sexual allegations in our company’s 62-year history, and none of them have been found to be true,” Michels said at this season’s candidate debate on Friday. He refuted Evers’ attacks.
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Among other things, the lawsuits served by the Evers campaign allege repeated sexual and verbal abuse and retaliation for what was reported by a total of seven then-Michels Corp. employees. He held leadership positions in a company co-founded by his parents.
Each action will be filed against Michels Corp. All lawsuits were dismissed at the request of the parties “with prejudice.” This means that the plaintiff is effectively barred from re-filing the lawsuit because the lawsuit issue is considered resolved.
Although only one dismissal order indicates that the relevant lawsuit has been settled, two attorneys with experience in such lawsuits said such dismissals would be commonplace if the parties reached a settlement. said. According to Madison’s attorney, Bob Casieta, the “majority” of such cases are settled before they reach trial. He and his New Berlin attorney Maxwell Livingston also said that settlements are not typically filed in court, and that the accused parties have not admitted wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
Livingston said such cases are “extremely difficult to prove” because they require that the behavior in question was “aggressive enough to make your job impossible.” said.
Robert Mihelich, who represented the woman in the 1998 case, said Tim Michels was “not involved” in the case. was critical of how hard Michels fought against what he said was a simple and factual claim.
His client, the only female member of Michel’s road crew, was repeatedly verbally harassed, sexually touched, and denied access to the restroom, the complaint alleges.
“It was terrible,” he said of the incident. “My conclusion is that at the time, this company wasn’t taking it seriously from the top down.”
Colleen Ramage, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania lawsuit, also said Tim Michels accused the supervisor of giving her sex toys and making sexually explicit comments to her on multiple occasions. Ramage said the case was closed, but a non-disclosure agreement prevented her from sharing any further details. , at least at certain workplaces at Michels at the time, “demonstrates a lack of sexual harassment training.”
“Tim Michels understands that harassment has no place in the workplace and should not be tolerated anywhere. The slander from Tony Evers, who has never run as much a lemonade stand in the private sector, shows he will stop doing nothing to maintain his grip on power.Great Wisconsin is a family owned company and he should be ashamed of himself.”
Attempts to reach Michels Corp. for comment were unsuccessful.
Michels Corp. has approximately 8,000 employees. Neither Kasieta nor his Mihelich could estimate the number of sexual harassment complaints a company of its size typically sees. Some Wisconsin companies have dozens of them, while others don’t exist at all, Cacieta said.
So what’s the rest of the story?
Tim Michels was not named for misconduct in three sexual harassment complaints filed against Michels Corp.
I am not a famous politician. I don’t have a “pull”. I am a suburban mom who has known Tim Michels for many years.
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