A former employee of the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center is suing the hotel chain after she alleges she was sexually assaulted by a manager and then forced to leave her job.
The Dearborn woman, whom Metro Times won’t identify because she was the victim of an alleged crime, claims in the lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court that the Detroit Marriott “created a sexually hostile environment” and failed to protect her.
According to the lawsuit, manager Dhurba Koirala invited the employee to his hotel room at the end of her shift at 1 p.m. on Aug. 8 “under the guise that other employees would be present.”
Koirala made her drinks and food, and at 7 a.m. the next day, she woke up disoriented in his bed, the lawsuit alleges. She “discovered that her underwear was inside out, and her menstruation product was missing,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed by Marko Law, a prominent Michigan civil rights firm.
Koirala “made harmful, unlawful and offensive contact” with the employee’s body, the lawsuit alleges.
The woman filed a police report and underwent a rape testing kit, and the DNA matched the manager, according to the suit.
Marko says Koirala has been criminally charged.
Every employer has an “obligation to provide a safe business environment for its staff and prevent its employees from injuring others,” her attorney Jon Marko said in a statement Monday. “Not only did Marriott breach its duty when it failed to protect our client, no person should be sexually assaulted as a condition of employment.”
She was “forced to leave her position at Marriott as a result of this incident and has not been able to work since due to the trauma she has endured,” Marko said.
The lawsuit alleges negligence, gross negligence, direct negligence, retaliation, hostile work environment, and violations of the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.
The defendants named in the suit are Marriott International, Detroit HMS LLC, Detroit Hotel Services, Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, and Sodexo.
According to the suit, the hotel breached its duty because “they knew or should have known that Koirala had a history of sexually assaulting and sexually harassing employees and intentionally and willfully ignored the behavior and allowed him to assault and harass employees.”
Metro Times couldn’t immediately reach the Marriott for comment.
