3 former American Apparel employees sue the firm, alleging defamation
Three former American Apparel Inc. employees who last month sued the Los Angeles company and its chief executive over alleged sexual harassment have filed a new lawsuit alleging defamation.
Filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the latest lawsuit seeks damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and impersonation online. The suit names the company, Chief Executive Dov Charney and a company photographer.
In the lawsuit, Irene Morales, Alyssa Ferguson and Tesa Lubans-Dehaven said that after they filed sexual harassment lawsuits in March, fake blogs purporting to belong to them began showing up on the Internet.
Some of the blogs featured “nude or semi-nude pictures” of Ferguson and Morales and also made it appear that the women were “admitting to an unlawful scheme of extortion … which they were not,” the suit said.
The latest suit also accuses Charney and the company of releasing photos of some of the women to several news outlets, including The Times.
Charney could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The company and its board of directors have denied all sexual harassment accusations and repeatedly described them as extortion attempts.
