Star Tribune
State sues Brainerd printing company after supervisor repeatedly sexually harassed employees
The state’s human rights department filed a lawsuit Thursday against a Brainerd printing company that alleges leadership failed to meaningfully stop a supervisor who was repeatedly sexually harassing two employees.
The suit asserts Sheridan, a commercial printing and book manufacturing company, violated the state’s civil rights law.
The complaint was filed in Crow Wing County district court by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and is signed by Attorney General Keith Ellison. It asks the company to revise its policies to prevent harassment, pay a fine and compensate the employees for mental anguish and suffering.
According to court documents, a supervisor at Sheridan, then called Bang Printing, began sexually harassing and assaulting two female employees in June 2020. This included regular unwelcome sexual advances, unwanted touching and offensive comments.
One of the employees filed a complaint against the supervisor in July 2020 but the company “failed to initiate an investigation, discipline the supervisor or put any measures in place to prevent further harassment from occurring. As a result, Sheridan allowed the sexual harassment and assault to continue,” states a press release issued Thursday by the department. Shortly after, one of the employees quit, citing the continued harassment.
After hearing that the supervisor was promoted, the employee still working at the company submitted another complaint; Sheridan issued a verbal warning to the supervisor, documents state, but the harassment continued.
In May 2021, both employees filed charges of discrimination with the Human Rights Department, which notified the company of the complaints. The company then retained a third party to conduct an investigation and fired the supervisor, documents state.
The state filed the civil suit after attempts to resolve the case with Sheridan were unsuccessful. It wants the company to revise policies, submit compliance reports to the state and require employees to undergo training on sex discrimination and sexual harassment.
A representative from Sheridan did not respond to a request for comment.
“Sheridan knew a supervisor was sexually harassing and assaulting its employees and, through willful inaction, gave this supervisor a license to sexually harass its employees,” Rebecca Lucero, commissioner of the Human Rights Department, said in the release. “There cannot be a meaningful end to sexual harassment when those who are in positions of power to end it deliberately do nothing.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
Halloween haunted houses are a scary business proposition, operators say
Dentists are pulling healthy and treatable teeth to profit from implants, experts warn
North Korea launches new, perhaps more agile ICBM designed to reach U.S. mainland in first such test in almost a year
Halloween haunted houses are a scary business proposition, operators say
Dentists are pulling healthy and treatable teeth to profit from implants, experts warn