Gary Heathcott's consulting contract with the Little Rock-based Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods Inc. was terminated because of a pattern of abuse, harassment and inappropriate workplace comments, the marketing firm said in response to Heathcott's lawsuit against the company.
"In violation of his [employment] agreement, Heathcott repeatedly and maliciously violated the rules against abusive conduct and sexually inappropriate and harassing statements in the workplace of CJRW and its clients, despite efforts to counsel, discipline and correct his behavior," said a portion of the 24-page response filed Thursday in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
Heathcott filed a lawsuit last month alleging that he was wrongly fired as a consultant on the grounds that he had violated the company's acceptable methods and procedures and its published employee handbook.
Heathcott was a consultant for CJRW, a public relations and advertising company, from March 2015 until his contract was terminated in September 2017. The CJRW response said the frequency of Heathcott's bullying, harassment and sexually inappropriate comments increased in late 2016 and "escalated dramatically in 2017."
Heathcott says he confirmed with CJRW's director of human resources in September 2017 that there had been no previous complaints filed with the office regarding his conduct, according to the lawsuit. The suit alleges that the company did not follow its own procedures regarding the filing and investigation of harassment complaints.
Heathcott said company CEO Darin Gray, or someone acting on CJRW's behalf, actively solicited female employees to make complaints of harassment against him and that employees who refused were subject to retaliatory action, including discharge, according to the lawsuit.
In addition to denying the allegations that Heathcott made against the company, CJRW's response Thursday included a counterclaim against Heathcott for the damages his behavior cost the company.
The company's response included claims of payments to Heathcott under his consulting agreement and commission addendum, reimbursements to which Heathcott was not entitled; expenses related to restoring and maintaining client relationships Heathcott damaged; lost productivity and management time because of Heathcott's behavior in the workplace; damage to CJRW's reputation because of Heathcott's behavior and conduct with clients and in public; and his statements in violation of confidentiality provisions.
The response listed 27 incidents that the company said were inappropriate, humiliating, embarrassing, racist and bullying conduct by Heathcott, and provided more than three additional pages describing his behavior toward CJRW employees and clients.
"Their response is filled with half truths, distortions and outright fabrications," Heathcott said Thursday in a prepared statement. "If only a small portion of those claims were factual, why would the CEO continue to throw bigger and better contracts at me, including a commission addendum provided just months before kicking me to the curb? Even so, none of what they claim gave them the right to cancel my contract, as that was reserved exclusively for me, as executed by Darin Gray."
In one incident, according to the CJRW response, Heathcott made a racial comment to a client's female representative who is of mixed race. The woman complained to the human resources department.
Client representatives contacted Heathcott, and client executives traveled from another state to meet with CJRW about the matter. When they arrived, Heathcott told the executives that he was in charge and was the person at CJRW to address the situation.
"In fact, Heathcott was not the appropriate person to meet with the client's representative," the response said. "The appropriate people at CJRW never knew about the meeting until after Heathcott's consulting agreement was terminated."
Other incidents included in the response described Heathcott making sexually embarrassing comments to female employees; insulting, cursing, humiliating and intimidating fellow employees, male and female, in the workplace and in public; and ignoring attempts by management for him to change his conduct.
State Desk on 01/25/2019