• 18
  • August
    2010

Last week, Playboy Entertainment Group was ordered to pay out more than $180,000 in damages to a former master control operator for Playboy TV. The Los Angeles Superior Court jury took less than two days to find on behalf of Julie Crouch, a married mother of four, who suffered sexual harassment and verbal abuse from fellow master control operator Charles Dorn during the more than five years they spent working together on Playboy TV.

During that time, Crouch claims that Dorn referred to her as a "whore," "slut" and "prostitute." He was also physically and verbally violent in the control room, creating an extremely hostile working environment, even though he never struck Crouch.

Crouch claimed that she dealt with severe emotional distress while on the job and continued to suffer the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. The jury did not, however, accept her argument of disability harassment following a period of extended medical leave for back surgery and complications with her breast implants.

Still, in addition to the $182,500 paid out by Playboy, the court ordered Dorn to pay Crouch $10,000 in punitive damages.

Playboy argued that Crouch had brought up the same points long before and they had been dealt with then. They did acknowledge that Dorn had been reprimanded during the time he worked with Crouch.

While the jury found that Playboy executives could have done more to prevent the harassment suffered by Crouch, it did exonerate Chere Johnson, who supervised the master control room during Crouch's time there.

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