The Department of Justice has filed a sexual harassment in housing suit against a public housing agency and two employees in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The suit alleges that the two employees, John Wesley and Eric Pender, made sexual advances toward and attempted to extract sexual favors from women who had applied to the housing agency for vouchers. The agency failed to take adequate and timely corrective measures toward the two, the suit alleges. A lawsuit was filed by eight women last year in a North Carolina state court that made similar claims against Wesley and Pender.
Source: Fayetteville Observer
These types of sexual harassment suits are rare; almost always, they arise in the employment context. In 1994, Robert Abell filed a similar sexual harassment in housing suit in Fayette Circuit Court, Wallace v. Cherokee Equity Corporation, et al. That case similarly involved the property manager sexually abusing, propositioning and eventually sexually assaulting a number of female tenants.
