A sexual harassment lawsuit worth a quarter of a billion dollars involving five female ex-employees has been filed against American Apparel CEO, Dov Charney.
Two of the women have publicly come forward. Irene Morales, 20, tells America’s Today show that when she was a 17-year-old employee Charney, 42, held her as a sex prisoner in his home. Kimbra Lo, 19, alleges that Charney sexually assaulted her and took a series of provocative but unsolicited photographs.
Street Boners custodian Gavin McIness however, has a different story to tell, calling Morales and Lo “a disgusting pair of human beings.” Earlier this week McIness published a series of x-rated photos Morales took of herself and emailed to Charney, before and after the allegations and hence before and after she was employed at American Apparel. Included are dirty text messages and an American Apparel wishlist sent to Charney a year after her last day working for the company, reading “send me my wittle birthday wishlist… do it for all the delicious blowjobs I would give you, and how I would lick your little asshole clean!!!”
McIness also published the photographs that Charney took of Lo, topless and sprawled out on his bed, pulling provocative faces. “[It is nauseating when you think of real victims of sexual abuse. Extortion is pretty low but cashing in on rape is at the very bottoms,” McIness said.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Eric Baum however responded to McIness’ evidence, saying, “it is not unusual for victims of sexual harassment or assault to grow so demoralized that they feel the only value they offer is as a sexual object” and that the emails, text messages and photographs “in no way means they deserved to be harrassed and assaulted.”
We agree wholeheartedly with that last part.
Words By Ingrid Kesa
