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Leigh Sosebee V. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission

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Leigh Sosebee V. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission
Major Case Study – Sexual Harassment
April 9, 2014 I. Case: Leigh Sosebee, Plaintiff, v. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Defendant

II. Facts of the Case
The plaintiff, Leigh Sosebee, filed a suite with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission that she was discriminated against because of her sex and retaliation. Sosebee filed the lawsuit in September of 2011 after being an employee since 2007. Sosebee complained of the sexual harassment in 2009 claiming her direct sergeant and other agents made her work environment at times hostile resulting in the termination of four agents. Sosebee requested to be relocated to Cleburne to the Fort Worth district and assigned to work with Jack Miller, a Field Training Officer. In February
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In her charge with EEOC she claimed "I have been discriminated against because of my sex, female and retaliated against for complaining of discrimination in violation of Title VII section 704(a) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended." (EEOC)
III. Laws that apply
Sosebee filed her suit to be considered sexual harassment under Title VII. According to the EEOC, sexual harassment is a form of harassment to a person because of that person’s sex, unwelcome sexual advances or offensive remarks about a person’s sex. Sosebee filed under Title VII because she felt as though the reasons for punishments were because of her sex. iv. Final Decision of the Court
In order for this suit to be under Title VII, Sosebee needed to exhaust the administrative remedies by filing a charge with the EEOC. TABC was able to produce nonretaliatory, nondiscriminatory reasons for Sosebee’s punishments which resulted in the case against being
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Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission the employer responded correctly to the events that occurred with the Plaintiff, Leigh Sosebee. In 2009 when Sosebee claimed to be working in a hostile work environment caused by sexual harassment behavior by her supervising sergeant and other agents, TABC took the claims seriously and terminated the agents. Sosebee then requested to be transferred to another district because of her work environment which was again granted. TABC is an Equal Opportunity Employer which is why they took the situation seriously. According to the EEOC, an employer can avoid being liable for the employees’ actions if the employer can prove that: it is reasonably tried to prevent and promptly correct the harassing behavior; and the employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the

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