{"id":43593,"date":"2021-08-04T14:10:44","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T21:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=43593"},"modified":"2021-08-04T14:21:05","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T21:21:05","slug":"oklahoma-landlords-to-pay-1-25-million-settlement-for-sexually-harassing-female-tenants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=43593","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma Landlords to Pay $1.25 Million Settlement for Sexually Harassing Female Tenants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Federal prosecutors have reached a $1.25 million agreement with defendants Rosemarie Pelfrey, Omega Enterprises LLC and Pelfrey Investment Company Inc. to resolve a Fair Housing Act lawsuit, officials stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The landlords&#8217; agent, Walter Ray Pelfrey, sexually harassed female tenants and prospective tenants while owning or managing dozens of Oklahoma City \u2013 area rental properties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pelfrey died in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the terms of the consent order, the defendants will pay $1.2 million in damages to female tenants and prospective tenants harmed by Pelfrey\u2019s harassment and a $50,000 civil penalty to the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFor nearly 20 years, more than 40 female tenants and prospective tenants endured abhorrent sexual harassment when all they wanted was a safe place to call home,\u201d said Acting U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester for the Western District of Oklahoma. \u201cTenants have the right under federal fair housing laws to be free from unwanted sexual harassment in order to obtain or maintain housing. The magnitude of this settlement and consent order demonstrates that the Justice Department will neither tolerate this type of discrimination from abusers nor ignore the vulnerable victims who suffer this abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The United States\u2019 lawsuit alleged that Pelfrey\u2019s harassment spanned a period of almost 20 years, through at least 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This included the following allegations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That prospective tenants engage in sexual acts to obtain housing, offering to reduce rent and overlooking unpaid rent in exchange for sexual intercourse or contact, evicting and threatening to evict female tenants for refusing his sexual advances, groping and grabbing female tenants\u2019 breasts, buttocks, and genitals, making unwelcome sexual advances and comments, and entering the homes of female tenants unannounced and without their consent to further these advances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The defendants \u2014 Rosemarie Pelfrey, in her capacity as trustee of two named trusts and as personal representative of Pelfrey\u2019s estate, Omega Enterprises LLC and Pelfrey Investment Company Inc. \u2014 were named in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> They owned the properties at which the discriminatory conduct took place, and are therefore vicariously liable for their agent Pelfrey\u2019s harassment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the terms of the settlement, the defendants must provide Fair Housing Act training for their employees, provide a complaint procedure to tenants and release judgments obtained against victims whom Pelfrey wrongfully evicted.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Justice Department\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/crt\/sexual-harassment-housing-initiative\">Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative<\/a>\u00a0is led by the Civil Rights Division, in coordination with U.S. Attorneys\u2019 Offices across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The goal of the department\u2019s initiative is to address and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/crt\/video\/sexual-harassment-housing-psa\">raise awareness<\/a>\u00a0about sexual harassment by landlords, property managers, maintenance workers, loan officers or other people who have control over housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Since launching the initiative in Oct. 2017, the Department of Justice has filed 21 lawsuits alleging sexual harassment in housing and recovered over $3.8 million for victims of such harassment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division enforces the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability and familial status.\u00a0 More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/crt\">http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/crt<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Individuals may report sexual harassment or other forms of housing discrimination by calling the Justice Department\u2019s Housing Discrimination Tip Line at 1-800-896-7743, emailing the Justice Department at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:fairhousing@usdoj.gov\">fairhousing@usdoj.gov<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/civilrights.justice.gov\/\">submitting a report online<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Individuals may also report such discrimination by contacting HUD at 1-800-669-9777 or by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hud.gov\/program_offices\/fair_housing_equal_opp\/online-complaint\">filing a complaint online<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal prosecutors have reached a $1.25 million agreement with defendants Rosemarie Pelfrey, Omega Enterprises LLC and Pelfrey Investment Company Inc. to resolve a Fair Housing Act lawsuit, officials stated. The landlords&#8217; agent,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Oklahoma Landlords to Pay $1.25 Million Settlement for Sexually Harassing Female Tenants<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Federal prosecutors have reached a $1.25 million agreement with defendants Rosemarie Pelfrey, Omega Enterprises LLC and Pelfrey Investment Company Inc. to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=43593\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oklahoma Landlords to Pay $1.25 Million Settlement for Sexually Harassing Female Tenants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Federal prosecutors have reached a $1.25 million agreement with defendants Rosemarie Pelfrey, Omega Enterprises LLC and Pelfrey Investment Company Inc. to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=43593\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Justice Notebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-04T21:10:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-04T21:21:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=43593#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=43593\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Raul\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\"},\"headline\":\"Oklahoma Landlords to Pay $1.25 Million Settlement for Sexually Harassing Female Tenants\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-04T21:10:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-04T21:21:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=43593\"},\"wordCount\":565,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"American Justice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=43593#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=43593\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=43593\",\"name\":\"Oklahoma Landlords to Pay $1.25 Million Settlement for Sexually Harassing Female Tenants\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-04T21:10:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-04T21:21:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Federal prosecutors have reached a $1.25 million agreement with defendants Rosemarie Pelfrey, Omega Enterprises LLC and Pelfrey Investment Company Inc. to\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=43593\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"description\":\"&quot;Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.&quot; 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