Walmart responded on Monday to an employee's "revenge porn" suit, in which a woman alleges the retail giant did nothing when she complained that a co-worker distributed sexually explicit photos of her to their co-workers.
"We do not tolerate harassment of any kind and take these allegations seriously," Walmart spokesman Ragan Dickens said. "While we have not been served with the complaint, we will respond appropriately with the court."
The woman is identified only as Jane Doe in her Los Angeles Superior Court suit filed Thursday. Her suit names as additional defendants Flora Garcia Solares, who allegedly disseminated the photos, and their mutual former boyfriend and Walmart worker Lamar Davenport, whom she accuses of giving the images to Solares.
The suit's allegations include revenge porn, harassment/hostile work environment, gender discrimination, retaliation, defamation and intrusion into private affairs. The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
The suit states that Doe, 51, was hired by Walmart at the Crenshaw District store in 2009, then was transferred to the Torrance location when the Crenshaw store was closed in October 2016. Solares also worked at the Torrance store, according to the suit, which does not state whether Davenport also worked there or at another location.
Doe and Davenport were in a romantic relationship until March 2017, the suit states. Davenport had sought dates with Doe both before and after she was hired at Wal-Mart, the suit states.
Solares had also once been in a relationship with Davenport, the suit states.
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The same month that Doe broke up with Davenport, he gave sexually explicit photos of the plaintiff to Solares, the suit states.
Solares sent copies of the photos along with "harassing text messages" to Doe, some of them "extremely offensive remarks regarding plaintiff's anatomy," the suit states.
"Plaintiff was mortified to receive these images and messages from a co-worker," the suit states.
Unknown to the plaintiff at the time, Solares also began circulating the photos to their co-workers during work hours and made foul comments about the plaintiff's alleged sexual conduct, the suit states.
Doe complained about Solares on the company hotline, but months passed without Walmart taking action, the suit states. However, she eventually was ordered to a meeting with the store manager, where she found out that Solares had been showing the photos of her to others in the workplace, the suit states.
"Plaintiff immediate felt mortified at this revelation," the suit states.
The store manager also alleged Doe was recorded on video making "an obscene hand gesture toward Solares," the suit states.
Doe denies making the gesture and the manager refused her request to see the video, saying that doing so would violate company policy, according to the suit.
"To date, Walmart has taken no action addressing plaintiff's complaints regarding sexual harassment from Solares," the suit alleges.
