Harassment suit filed against downstate Elks Lodge
Posted March 12, 2009 11:00 pm
EAST ST. LOUIS -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing a southwestern Illinois Elks Lodge, claiming that three board members sexually harassed three female bartenders.
The EEOC filed the lawsuit in federal court in East St. Louis against the Elks Lodge No. 954 in Jerseyville.
It alleges that trustees Joe Ritter, Allen Dunham and Dennis Prough made unwanted sexual advances and comments to the women in 2005 and 2006.
When the bartenders complained, the suit alleges, their hours were cut, they got the worst work shifts and they had to endure threats and abusive comments.
Calls to Ritter's house went unanswered Friday. There's no home telephone listing for Dunham, and messages left at Prough's home haven't been returned.