Lawyer's sexual harassment was 'monstrous and inhuman,' lawsuit alleges
Image from Shutterstock.com.
A sexual harassment lawsuit filed against a Kentucky lawyer claims that he sexually harassed two employees with "outrageous and intolerable" conduct, leading one of them to threaten to cut off his exposed penis.
The lawsuit accuses Corbin, Kentucky, lawyer Shane Romines of fondling the employees, sending them “perverse and beyond obscene” videos of himself, and requiring one of them to perform oral sex. The plaintiffs are a former receptionist and legal assistant at the law firm.
The Louisville Courier Journal and the Times-Tribune have coverage; the Kentucky Trial Court Review’s Facebook page links to the July 28 complaint.
Romines denied the allegations, telling the Louisville Courier Journal that the claims “will prove to be untrue.”
The suit alleges that Romines allowed the receptionist to keep her $22,000-per-year job in exchange for his “monstrous and inhuman behaviors.”
Romines also made clear to the legal assistant that he expected her to “be friendly” and loyal if she expected to keep her job, according to the suit.
The legal assistant put up with Romines exposing himself until March 10, when he “flopped out his partially erect penis between her penholder and stapler and started shaking it, saying, ‘Just give it a little touch, c’mon, just a little touch,’” according the suit.
“Scared, shaken and physically ill, but at the end of her rope, [the employee] picked up her letter opener and said, ‘Or, like Lorena Bobbitt, I can cut it right off,’ ” the suit says.
After that, Romines stopped giving work to the legal assistant, “ghosted her and hired someone to replace her,” the suit says.
The two employees reached out to each other May 1 and learned that they were both victims, the suit says. They took sick leave and never returned. After the employees left, Romines called them each “a gold digger and slut,” according to the suit.
The suit alleges sexual harassment, retaliation, constructive discharge and infliction of emotional distress.
Romines is a personal injury lawyer with the Copeland & Romines Law Office. His uses the slogan “In pain? Call Shane!”
