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| February 24, 2000 |
By: Stephen Van Drake |
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uch to their horror, Ocwen Financial Corp. employees Patti J. Kidder and Katherine R. Dean of West Palm Beach learned that intimate parts of their anatomy were appearing on voyeuristic and pornographic Internet sites.
In a 33-page suit filed Feb. 15 in Palm Beach Circuit Court, the two claim that a former co-worker at Ocwen, Ronald J. Minnis Jr. , installed a hidden video camera in the ladies’ restroom at the company’s headquarters in West Palm Beach.
Kidder and Dean are seeking damages from Minnis and Ocwen for invasion of privacy, intentional or reckless infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring, negligent supervision and negligent retention.
Minnis, who has no listed phone number and whose position at the company is not spelled out in the complaint, could not be reached for comment.
At Ocwen, a financial services company that specializes in buying and providing mortgages, legal department manager Trini Louise Donato also declined to comment. “We do not comment on any litigation,” she said.
But in the complaint, the women’s attorneys, William M. Julien of Grossman & Goldman in Boca Raton, and George R. Supran of Freeman & Supran in West Palm Beach, wrote that “Minnis crawled through and hid in the crawlspaces/structures above the women’s restroom and secretly spied on plaintiffs and other female employees. ”
Julien says Kidder and Dean still work at Ocwen. Kidder, who started in December 1997, is the company’s auction coordinator. Dean, who began in January 1997, is the mortgage company’s residential sales manager.
The complaint does not specify when the alleged action took place. It does say that the two women complained to management at some point, but nothing was done, according to the suit.
“At no time did Ocwen taken any steps to investigate or follow up on plaintiffs’ complaints, thus allowing Minnis’ activities to go unchecked,” Julien and Supran wrote.
Moreover, the two employees allege that managers, supervisors, owners and officers issued a barrage of insults that humiliated Kidder and Dean, including: “Patti porn star,” “You should attach your picture to your request for a raise,” and “Oh, I guess I better check to see if there are any video cameras in the bathroom, shouldn’t I? ”
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