Mississippi-It Happened To Me:Sexual Harassment

Ms. Allen was a news producer at a Mississippi television network who dreamed of one day becoming a news anchor. In the summer of 1998, Ms. Allen began discussions with a news station about employment as an anchor at a news program set to begin in March of 1999. The station hired a news director and also hired Ms. Allen as their anchor. Her employers decided to hire Ms. Allen for a number of reasons, including her familiarity with the Mississippi Gulf Coast, her notoriety as a radio personality, her lower salary expectations, and her enthusiasm about becoming an anchor.

Ms. Allen began her new position on February 1, 1999, but things quickly went wrong. Her contract said that Ms. Allen would be employed as news anchor and reporter for three years and that her employer could terminate her with 30 days notice with 'good cause'. But due to budget constraints, the network made the employees do manual labor, could not hire seasoned employees, could not obtain the best equipment, and experienced many difficulties in preparing for the news show. On the second day on the job, Ms. Allen felt very sick and left work early. For the next two days, she stayed home because she was sick.

During the time Ms. Allen was employed, her boss made improper sexual advances toward her. He also made inappropriate comments about her appearance, inappropriately touched her, and asked her out on dates. In addition, her boss had many extramarital affairs with other employees.

On Friday of her first week, Ms. Allen met with her employers, who told her that she was being demoted from the position of news anchor to reporter. They told her that she could work her way up to being an anchor after she got more experience. On March 19, 1999, her boss claimed that he decided to demote Ms. Allen because she had performed poorly in preparation for the newscast. He also said that she was not a 'team player,' and that many other employees had complained about her. A new anchor who was the friend of the network vice-president was hired to replace Ms. Allen.

When Ms. Allen came to work on March 22, 1999, she was fired. She had been out sick for several days, and was distraught over her demotion. At her termination meeting, her boss told her that she was not a team player and no one liked her. He also yelled at her, called her "a prima donna bitch" and "the Antichrist". Ms. Allen had never received criticism from a fellow employee, and no negative comments about her appeared in her employment file. Ms. Allen believed her rejection of her boss's sexual advances contributed to her boss's anger.

On March 30, 2000 Ms. Allen sued her former employer. Because Ms. Allen sued under Mississippi law, she could not bring a claim for sexual harassment. Ms. Allen sued her employer for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and breach of employment contract. She claimed her employer did not have 'good cause' to fire her, and she was fired because she rejected the sexual advances made by her boss. On the claim of breach of contract, the jury unanimously found for Ms. Allen and awarded her $227,000 in damages in 2002.