Sexual harassment-retaliation lawsuit

From yesterday’s Times:

A security director of the National Basketball Association said in a lawsuit Monday that Geno Auriemma, the coach of the United States Olympic women’s basketball team, followed, grabbed and tried to forcibly kiss her at a hotel during a basketball tournament in Russia in 2009.

The security director, Kelley Hardwick, said that she pushed him away, according to the suit filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

This year, the suit claims, Mr. Auriemma retaliated for the rebuff by successfully demanding that the N.B.A. remove her as the top security official for the United States women’s team at the London Olympics.

Here’s the whole article, by Michael Powell. I was impressed by this:

She [Ms. Hardwick] provided a list of witnesses, who she said knew about the encounter with Mr. Auriemma…

There is no indication that the witnesses were physically present during the alleged grab-and-kiss, though Ms. Hardwick apparently told a number of people about it immediately afterward. (She is a law school grad and former NYC police detective, i.e., she knows what to do in these cases.) “But the league’s general counsel did not talk to these people or to Mr. Auriemma, she said.”

It’s a good thing to remember as you compile the record of your potential lawsuit. If you are thinking you might have to sue because something bad happened to you, do not keep it a secret. Tell friends about it, as well as any supervisory authority.

You are not the one who has behaved shamefully.

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