A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court says Brady Patterson, a 23-year-old from Camas, Wash., worked from August 2005 to February 2006 at Cascade Recovery Inc. in Vancouver, Wash., then at the collection agency's Portland headquarters from March 2006 to August 2006.
In the lawsuit, Patterson claims his supervisors, Robert Shanks and Sonny Mackey, subjected Patterson to verbal harassment and encouraged other employees to do the same. Shanks called Patterson names such as "fag," "fag boy," "homo" and "gyno" (short for "gynophobic") on a daily basis, the lawsuit says.
Cascade Recovery has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The lawsuit claims Patterson was also asked questions like "How is your boyfriend?" and "Are you growing boobs?" Shanks and Mackey referred to Patterson as "Brokeback Brady," berated him for reading fitness magazines at work, and accused him of masturbating in the restroom, the lawsuit says.
"Mr. Shanks and Mr. Mackey also started making comments about how often Plaintiff had to use the restroom," the lawsuit says. "They told Plaintiff that he was just like a man that they had heard about who had to urinate all the time because the man had 'a small dick and balls."
Shanks took particular interest in Patterson, according to the lawsuit, repeatedly taking Patterson outside to tell Patterson his views on homosexuality and to encourage Patterson to come out of the closet.
The lawsuit also says Shanks told Patterson that a locksmith the company employed was gay and "could suck" Patterson. On another occasion, the lawsuit says Shanks took Patterson into his office, told Patterson to "close the fucking door," and screamed at Patterson, "Do you want to fuck me?"
Shanks also subjected Patterson to physical harassment, the lawsuit says, including putting Patterson in a choke hold and holding a hunting knife to his face, saying he could cut off Patterson's ear with one slice.
The lawsuit says Patterson quit his job on Aug. 10, 2006, after Shanks threatened to fire Patterson for spilling coffee, telling Patterson to "get a fucking box because you won't be here much longer."
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Martin Dolan, seeks $343,000 for lost wages and emotional suffering.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Cascade recovery gay bashing lawsuit
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6 comments:
I am sorry to see that Brady Patterson is continuing with his statements in regards to Cascade Recovery.
As a former employee and someone who was in a position above Brady and worked with Brady, i can personally state that i never heard any of these comments from Mr.Mackey or Mr.Shanks or for that fact "any" employee during my employment from October 2004 thru July 2007. Not even in "joke" form.
Mr.Shanks went out of his way not only helping Brady,but all employees to excel in their position within Cascade Recovery. This story has been running with a misleading line calling Brady Patterson a "gay employee". Brady Patterson, last i knew, was not gay nor ever assumed as a "gay employee".
Mr.Shanks could care less about your preference or what you did with your own personal time away from Cascade Recovery. His only requirement was for you to show up for work,perform it to company expectations,and go home. Also,Mr.Mackey had little to no contact with Brady Patterson during his employment.Brady Patterson was first employed at the Portland Office and then terminated. He was later re-hired by Mr. Shanks who had left the Portland Office to take over the Vancouver Office.
Mr. Shanks tried to help Brady Patterson improve himself and gave him a second chance at Vancouver. I have no loyalty to Cascade Recovery as i no longer work for them. I will not sit idly by though and watch Brady Patterson bash innocent people i have worked with that have character. This case was filed in Federal Court on March 19th 2007 and i now see it was kicked out. Wonder why??? Supposedly Brady Patterson now has a new attorney as well. Wonder why??? Maybe, Just maybe, none of this ever happened.
Marc N.
Hey Marc... know what you are talking about before making a "post"... This was not "kicked out" of Federal Court. There was a stipulated motion (do you know what that means?) by both parties. This allowed it to be filed at the State level
Hey Marc... know what you are talking about before you make a "post". This was NOT thrown out of Federal Court. There was a "stipulated motion" (do you know what that means") that allowed this to be filed at the State level.
Well Marc, Are you Brady's keeper? Were you with Brady every moment of every day? Did you have your eyes on him at all times? If you were then well you should probably have some sort of stalking/harassment suit filed against you. If you weren't then you don't know FOR SURE that the allegations didn't happen. Regardless if they were serious remarks or "joke" remarks, both are still illegal. Also did you have conversations with Brady regarding Brady's sexual orientation? I'm going to assume no, because you aren't included in the law suit. Such talk is not acceptable in any work environment. Also since you are not Mr. Shanks you can't say for him whether or not he cares about someones sexual orientation, that is up to Mr. Shanks to disclose not you. Also since you aren't Mr Mackey nor Brady Patterson you cannot say how much contact they had between each other, because I'm going out on a limb and thinking you didn't set up conferences between people. Also I don't see how someone can have little to no contact with someone. You can either have little contact or no contact with someone. Brady must not have done anything bad to be able to get rehired, so I am doubting Brady got his job back just because Mr. Shanks wanted to help him. I think Brady got hired back because he is a good worker i.e. winning employee of the month award. I'm also curious how you know about Brady's termination considering it is personal information not concerning you. Again you are not Mr. Shanks so you cannot say Mr. Shanks was trying to help Brady improve himself. Marc, also you don't know whether the above alleged are innocent. You should also get your facts straight knowing that the case was not kicked out, it was merely moved to a different court system. If ones case was kicked out well then there wouldn't be an ongoing lawsuit now would there? Sorry to rip your story apart, but I think facts should be straight.
hey Annonymus, why don't you use your real name. Is this Brady? The only way you could have known he won any type of award is either you are a friend of Brady's or you are Brady.
The story that is posted at the top is factually incorrect. I sent a e-mail to Mr. Pitkin to not just copy and paste a story,but to check the facts which he said he did not do because Cascade Recovery would not respond to him.
It is stating Brady as "A gay employee at a local debt-collection agency ". To answer your question-"Also did you have conversations with Brady regarding Brady's sexual orientation?".I have had conversations with Brady that would lead me to believe he is straight, including his Myspace page that says he is straight(as of today),as well as his ad on Craigslist(with photo) looking to date older women.
Also the fact that he wanted to marry the 16 year old pregant girl from the Vancouver office building that served coffee at the stand. So unless you know something i don't, BACK IT UP WITH FACTS!!
In regards to Brady's termination first time around,he told most everyone why he was let go the first time,including me.
As for your comment-" I don't see how someone can have little to no contact with someone."- well i will assume for now-NAMELESS- that you have never worked for Cascade Recovery. Otherwise you would know this answer. I never said Brady did anything bad not to be re-hired, infact he was welcomed back.
Now also in regards to your comment-"Also did you have conversations with Brady regarding Brady's sexual orientation? ". You are making it sound as though Brady is now gay. Please correct me if i am wrong.
As for the law suit,Cascade's Attorney has my statement on record from July 07( might have been June 07) which will be brought into evidence i will assume at some point and time.
As for your last couple of comments it was kicked out of Federal Court (stipulated) to State Court.
And i do know the above alledged are innocent. Sorry to rip you apart(Brady?)
or whoever is cowering behind the above statement. My facts are straight.
I was also employee of the month twice. BIG DEAL!!
Interesting---on the Williamette Weekly thread, a past or current girlfriend of Brady's named Lisa stated he is and i quote--"FAR from being gay".Hmmmmmmmm
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