SAN DIEGO - Sexual harassment - hiring prostitutes for a retreat - these are some of the accusations being leveled against a San Diego based company. One woman says she was fired after she finally complained about what was happening.
"I got to the point I hated getting up in the morning," Sherry Dunn told San Diego 6. "I hated going to work."
In a legal complaint, Dunn spelled out how she worked her way into an executive position with Hunter Industries' San Diego headquarters but the companies President and CEO, Dick Hunter, was making her life unbearable.
In the legal documents, Dunn claims Hunter would rub her legs and brush up against her breasts.
"I really tried to just let it run run off of me and not believe that it was happening," Dunn said.
The documents claim he went even further, telling Dunn he wanted to have a sexual relationship with her and sending her sexually explicit cards.
Some of the cards listed in the complaint read: "If we have sex, I would think, 'damn we're good and bad.'"
Another reads: "I'd want you to be my hoe."
Still another card reads, "I'd still totally make out with you" and in the CEO's handwriting it says "like -- I love you."
"It was almost like unbelievable," said Dunn. "I cannot believe he was giving me these cards."
The compliant spells out allegations of a culture of sexual harassment, with women being openly groped by male supervisors, with Hunter named as the prime offender and openly calling employees derogatory names like "prick tease" and "company whores".
Coworker Carlos Gallastegui was also an executive with Hunter. He supports the claims in the legal documents that prostitutes were hired as entertainment for company sponsored retreats.
"There were women dancing on the tables," Gallastegui stated.
For the last five years that she worked at Hunter, Dunn says the harassment intensified. Living with it day in and day out, she says she finally complained. According to legal documents, within months of complaining, Dunn was fired and so was her co-worker.
In a separate complaint, attorneys for Hunter Industries claim the long-term employees were fired for cause for their actions and conduct but they don't give any specifics.
In a statement from Hunter's attorney they state, "Hunter Industries' policy is not to comment on ongoing litigation. However, the Company and Mr. Hunter dispute Ms. Dunn's allegations and are confident that the truth will come out in court."
Dunn says she's speaking out, hoping other women will be spared the same treatment.
