Texans sued over sexual harassment complaint

I am sure people will post her picture... I hope not.

The Texans organization still operates like it is the 1970’s.

 

That’s unfortunate. Sell the team.

 

The timeline is a bit odd, so she was allegedly harassed starting in 2013 and she didn't report it till 2016 after saying she attempted to sever her relationship with the guy completely in 2015? Also, she left in May of 2017 and the guy was fired last month, but now she's filing a suit?

The whole thing is just odd.

 

Everybody's getting the ol' Cosby treatment nowadays.

 

Well it would be one thing if she were suing the guy for whatever he allegedly did once upon a time, but suing his former employer? Kind of a stretch.

 

Well, whaddaya know, who'd have thunk... tip of the iceberg:

 

Texans sued by ex-employee for harassment

ESPN
HOUSTON -- A former Texans employee alleges she was sexually harassed by the team's former director of football operations and that the team did not respond properly when notified of the allegations.

In a lawsuit filed Friday, Kristen Grimes alleges that former director of football operations Jason Lowrey was part of an "Alpha-Male environment, where continuous improprieties toward female employees were not punished."

She alleges that Lowrey pursued a relationship with her "almost immediately" after she was hired. On a 2013 work trip to Nashville, Tennessee, Grimes alleges that she was groped by Lowrey, with him "openly grabbing her butt." The lawsuit also says that in 2015, after Grimes "attempted to sever" her relationship with Lowrey, he openly stalked her at the workplace.

According to the lawsuit, Grimes filed a complaint with the Texans' human resources department, but "the organization thereafter failed to conduct a proper and unbiased internal investigation of [Grimes'] complaint."

"The Houston Texans also decided not to reprimand or discipline Jason Lowrey in any way, other than to merely make a note of the complaint in his file," the lawsuit states.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the team "parted ways" with Lowrey on Jan. 16.​

 

Maybe we can fire McNair.

 

Jerry Jones can't be the only one missing the old gloryhole days.

 

The employer is the one with the real money... if she sued the guy she is likely to never see any money

 

LOL well yeah, I mean I get why she sued the Texans, she's looking for money, I was just saying that the lawsuit was a stretch.

 

Jason Lowrey (chron.com)

Houston Texans says team aware of lawsuit over failing to act on sexual harassment claim

ABC 13 Eyewitness News
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston Texans revealed that a former employee has alleged the team failed to properly act on a sexual harassment claim made with the team more than a year ago.

The former employee filed the lawsuit in Harris County on Friday.

In documents obtained by Eyewitness News, the former worker, who we are not identifying due to the nature of the claims, names the Texans ownership Houston NFL Holdings, LP and the team's former manager of football operations Jason Lowrey as defendants in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the team fostered an "Alpha-Male environment" where improprieties toward women workers went unpunished and were actually rewarded.

Singling out Lowrey, the lawsuit also claims that he pursued a relationship with her almost immediately after her hiring in 2013, and that Lowrey held a reputation of manipulating and treating female workers "inappropriately and wrongfully for his own pleasure."

The former worker goes on to claim that she knew nothing of Lowrey's alleged reputation and that she felt "obligated to participate in this sexually charged, deviant behavior." At one point, the lawsuit claims, Lowrey groped the former worker in front of other people during a business trip.

The woman claims she attempted to cut off any relationship with Lowrey, who then allegedly stalked her at work, began spreading rumors about her sleeping with players, and making lewd comments and gestures at her in the workplace.

For the team's part, the lawsuit states that the former worker filed a complaint with the team's human resources who informed her of Lowrey's reputation. She claims the team made no effort to conduct a "proper and unbiased investigation" out of fear that it would be discovered.

No disciplinary action was made with Lowrey, who was also promoted, the lawsuit says.[/quote]
​

 

Sexual Harassment Fostered and Rewarded by Houston Texans Organization

“I finally felt I wasn’t alone,” she said.

In this exclusive report to TheLegalNews.com, Kristen sat down with us in the presence of her counsel and recounted years of being harassed, misrepresented, intimidated, bullied, stalked, and outright emotionally tortured by someone she worked with during her time as an account executive in suite sales at the front office of the Houston Texans football organization.

Kristen’s journey began in May of 2013 when she joined the Texans organization. That first month gave no indication of what was laying ahead of her. “I was so excited to be working at this job,” she said. “I have always wanted to work for the NFL, and this was a dream come true.”

Dazzled and bedazzled by the fast-paced, high-adrenaline world of professional football, Kristen found herself being pursued by then Manager (subsequently promoted to Director) of Football Operations, Jason Lowrey. Sadly, other women working in the front office of the organization had “seen and heard it” before, but Kristen was unaware of his history of attempting to lure female coworkers. Ultimately, Kristen felt compelled to give in to Lowrey’s advances.

As the year progressed, Kristen recalls feeling that Lowrey was directly threatening her job security. On numerous occasions at work related events, Lowrey told Kristen, “Don’t mention our relationship to anyone.” However, in December of 2013, Kristen stated that “we were out with a bunch of clients and employees in a social working environment, when he suddenly and openly groped my butt in front of everyone. He said that he wanted everyone to know. That’s when I realized that he wanted to control every aspect of my life when it came to him.”

According to Kristen, that night ended with her spurning his advances and him drinking and giving her the silent treatment. “Immediately, a new tone was set. When he wasn’t glaring at me from across the rooms, he would be jealous about my clients and get angry at me with little to no provocation.”

If 2013 ended on a surreal note for Kristen, it was nothing compared to 2014. “The entire year, he waged a campaign against me that I can only classify as emotional abuse,” she said. “He would alternate between getting verbally abusive with me in between times of simply glaring at me in silence. I learned that he was telling others in both departments of the office about our relationship. The entire year, I was subject to his whims.”

In early 2015, Kristen had decided that she’d had enough of Lowrey’s impact on her life. She refused to speak to or interact with him for several weeks. “It was difficult; he was everywhere I was. We still had to cross paths at the office as our duties dictated. And the more I refused to talk with him, the more he wouldn’t leave me alone.”

What followed was, according to Kristen, a definite low point in her life. “His personality was just so strong. After about six weeks of me trying and failing to avoid him, he found a way to interact with me enough to where our relationship began again.” Though this time around it didn’t last as long, the repercussions were much longer-lasting.

Feeling that something was wrong with her based on her actions, Kristen opted to go into therapy in September of 2015. “Going to therapy twice a week truly opened my eyes to his behavior, which has been categorized by others as sociopathic. I’m not qualified to agree or disagree with that, but his patterns of certainly fit some of those profiles.” Most saddening is that the organization was aware of this pervasive condition, and did nothing to end it.
...
“Another sales rep and I won a trip based on our sales performance. It was a great, innocent time where for the first time in a long time I felt validated. But when I returned from the trip, emails from Jason let me know that key individuals within ownership, including a member of the McNair family, were saying horrible things about me, and that I was on was on their high-level hit list.”

With this news, Kristen decided to refuse herself the suggested route of going to the human resources department. “I didn’t know who to trust. Jason would frequently tell me that if anything happened, if there were any fallout to our previous relationship, that I’d be the one forced to leave and he’d get to stay. My dream of working for the NFL would be over forever.”

As 2015 came to an end, once again Kristen found herself on the receiving end of Lowrey’s unacceptable behavior. “I learned that he had told... both his colleagues and mine that I was sleeping with the entire offensive line.”

Any hopes that 2016 would be any sort of improvement over the previous two years were soon dashed by Lowrey’s ongoing campaign of intimidation. “Once again, everywhere I went, he’d contrive to be there. For a while, I ate in the cafeteria, but he would just sit at a table across from me and glare at me, even licking his lips at me. That, plus the rumors he kept spreading, made me so self-conscious that I opted to eat away from the offices, whether or not I could even afford it, and despite how isolated it made me feel. And on more than one occasion, wherever I’d eat for lunch, he’d be nearby, just staring at me again.”

As the 2016 football season ramped up, Kristen again found herself unable to rely on a workplace-provided support system. “Despite the rules in place, there’s very much a ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ environment at the Texans front office,” she said. “I was warned time and again by coworkers that if I went up against the ‘football side’ of the organization, I’d lose.”

Lowrey’s despicable behavior continued throughout the year, and Kristen recalls a time in August of 2016 when he made harassing comments about her appearance. “’Hey, little girl; what do you have under that dress?’” Although Kristen later notified the organization of this vulgar statement, Lowrey remained at his position without reprimand.

During this same period, Kristen was placed on probation for low job performance only to exceed expectations the next year and not get promoted, while Lowrey was promoted from Manager to Director, Kristen then realized her tormentor was protected by those higher up, and she started taking notes of the hellacious work environment.

“I had been and was continuing to be victimized by him; now, I was being victimized by the organization itself.”

By November of that year, she could no longer tolerate Lowrey’s continuing advances and other harassing behavior that included intimidation, misrepresentation of her to others, and outright stalking. She steeled herself and went to the office’s human resources department. “I can remember sitting there after telling the head of HR everything, and the only reply I got was basically, ‘Well, we all know he’s a womanizer.’ He had just been promoted, they knew who and what he was, and I realized that objectifying women in the Texans organization wasn’t only allowed, it was rewarded.”

Despite three-and-a-half years of being tormented by one man’s words and deeds – and his seeming protection by their mutual overseers – Kristen felt she could not go public with her claims for fear of being savaged by a football-loving public who cared more about stats than people. Two things spurred her into action, however.

“Right around the end of 2016, long after any traces of a relationship between me and Jason were long gone, I learned of a new female intern who had just joined the organization was his latest target. I remember those times in 2013 when I was warned by others; now was my opportunity to warn her. The cycle had to be broken.”

In her efforts to bring to light the intolerable and deplorable working conditions at her workplace, Kristen met with attorneys on both sides. “The Texans’ general counsel even acknowledged that Jason had submitted numerous emails concerning me that were of an extremely hurtful nature.”

Despite the forward momentum, Lowrey was never officially punished for his behavior against Kristen and any others who came before and after her. “Human resources told me they would just wait to see if it would happen again with anyone else. With this new intern he’d gone after, it did happen again, and they still did nothing.”

Eventually, in January of 2018, Lowrey, who was widely acknowledged to be very close with Texans general manager Rick Smith, “parted ways” with the organization with an apparently unblemished record. A call to the Texan media relations department by The Legal News has yet to be returned.

Kristen’s attorney, Scott Hunziker of The Voss Law Firm, based in The Woodlands, Texas, is proud of his client for coming forward. “Only through courage can this pervasive behavior be stopped,” he said. “She faced the alpha male network of the NFL, and it has understandably taken time and strength to come forward. But here she is, demanding answers, which we fully intend to get through the legal system. It is our sincere hope that other women within professional football come forward, whether they have experienced similar treatment by this team, or others. If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that there is incredible strength in numbers. It’s time the story gets told.”

Today, Kristen is still attending therapy to cope with the trauma of the past few years. She left the Texans in April of 2017, as painful as it was to leave what was always supposed to be her dream job.

“I can only hope that at the end of this, that it was worth it,” she says. “Because of the strength of others, I was able to find my own voice to join all these other harassed and abused women who are likewise finding their own voices at long last.”

“What’s wrong is wrong; you can’t get away with it."​

 

So at some point she was his side-piece? Twice?

 

Yes. This is about a married dude who bullies younger women at NRG, and those who covered up for him. I have zero sympathy for bullies/stalker types.

And it’s about a culture of similar behavior and how high it reaches within the organization.

There’s a bigger story here that local sports media are keeping a lid on. It might take a non-sports reporter like that Ted Oberg guy from ABC13 to muster than nads to break it. Suffice it to say, people aren’t always who they present themselves to be.

 

She could be totally innocent or about to do a layout in playboy and is seeking punlicity. You just never know these days.

 

Not taking sides but it could also be about a scorned lover.

I'm withholding judgement for the time being.

 

i'm glad sports media are ignoring it because it's not sports. leave it for the regular media ffs.

also has nothing to do with having or not having nads as you said. in fact that's a sexists comment in a post defending this woman which is ironic.