Former employee sues Diné College chef for harassment

WINDOW ROCK

A former sous chef for Diné College Director of Food Services Franco Lee is suing both Lee and the contractor they worked for, alleging sexual harassment, intimidation and wrongful termination.

Helena LaPlant, 46, of Flagstaff, is asking Window Rock District Court for an unspecified monetary amount for damages, along with back pay, forward pay and reinstatement. LaPlant said she made $30,000 a year, so back pay alone would amount to $60,000.

Lee, 44, of Gallup, did not return a phone call requesting comment.

Karen Cutler with the corporate communications department of Aramark Educational Services LLC, which is contracted to provide food services at the college, said the company has not seen the lawsuit, which was filed Friday.

“Anyway, we wouldn’t comment on ongoing litigation,” she said.

In the 20-page lawsuit, LaPlant alleges that while she was employed at Diné College from March of 2013 until April of 2014, Lee measured her bust (saying he needed the measurement to order her a chef’s jacket), inquired about her sex life and demonstrated meat-cutting techniques by reaching around her back and placing his hands on hers, even after she told him, “I can’t learn this way.”

According to the suit, Lee often told off-color stories and jokes in front of female employees, at one point bragging about inappropriately touching a female police officer while being booked into jail for intoxication.

LaPlant states in the suit she often caught Lee staring at her and one time he appeared to be deliberately loitering in front of the women’s restroom.

The suit states Lee, when he first hired LaPlant, asked her to sign a statement saying she had received a copy of the company’s sexual harassment policy when in fact she hadn’t.
“He told me he would give it to me at a later time, but I never got it,” she said in an interview.

LaPlant says Lee seemed to find excuses to touch her, pulling her hair as she walked by or grabbing her hand while she was writing on a white board. She avoided being in the walk-in refrigerator with him, she alleges, because he would often use the opportunity to touch her.

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