Palos Verdes Dishwasher Receives $250,000 In #MeToo Case

PALOS VERDES, CA – Sandra Pezqueda, a former dishwasher at an upscale resort, settled her sexual harassment lawsuit this month against the luxury hotel in Rancho Palos Verdes for $250,000, TIME magazine reported. Pezqueda, an outspoken proponent of the #MeToo movement named one of the "Silence Breakers" selected by TIME magazine for its 2017 Person of the Year, filed the lawsuit in the Summer of 2017 against the Terranea resort and its staffing agency Excel.

She alleged that when she rejected her supervisor's sexual advances, he retaliated against her by changing her schedule and gradually cutting her hours so that she was no longer able to support herself. When she complained, she was fired.

"Reporting sexual assault in my job was one of the most difficult and painful things I've had to do, and I was punished for it," Pezqueda said. "I don't want anyone else in this city to go through what I went through..."

Pezqueda's attorney Lauren Teukolsky, said her client’s case may indicate the beginning of a cultural shift. One has to assume that the #MeToo movement has altered every employer's calculations over whether to resolve a case or not, Teukolsky told TIME.

“I think that employers, generally speaking, are going to be much more cautious about going to trial now that women are being believed about their sexual harassment allegations, and every potential juror knows somebody who has had a #MeToo moment,” she said.

The terms of the settlement release all parties of liabilities, the magazine reported. Excel will pay the settlement directly to Pezqueda, while Terranea resort said the agreement "cleared" the company of wrongdoing, according to TIME.

In a statement published by Terranea resort, the resort said they diligently denied and defended itself in this outside lawsuit. The resort is a woman-led business with a zero-tolerance policy toward harassment, Terranea President Terri A. Haack said in the statement.

“We said at the time that this lawsuit – and these allegations – have nothing to do with Terranea, and the settlement between Excel and Ms. Pezqueda validates that we were right," Haack said. “We have created thousands of career opportunities for thousands of men and women from wonderfully diverse backgrounds, and we are very proud of our employees and their accomplishments.”

Related: Union Proposes Panic Button To Protect Palos Verdes Hotel Workers

City News Service contributed to this post; Image via Shutterstock