[Palm Beach Edition]
South Florida Sun - Sentinel - Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
By Missy Stoddard Staff Writer
Date: Sep 14, 2004
More than four years after two former employees of West Palm Beach-based Ocwen Financial Corp. filed a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit against the company, the case has yet to go to trial or be settled.
In March 2000, Patti Kidder and Katherine Dean filed suit against Ocwen, accusing management at the financial holding company of failing to protect them from Ronald Minnis, who they say spied on them in the bathroom and videotaped them from under an office desk.
Kidder and Dean, who have both since left Ocwen, claim that their complaints and concerns went unheeded after they reported them to supervisors. Since the lawsuit was filed, Minnis, 31, has been dismissed as a defendant in the case. He worked in a collections department at Ocwen about six weeks when the allegations surfaced
William Julien, who represents the plaintiffs, declined to comment on the case. Ocwen attorney Dan Rosenbaum said that without any explanation, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed Minnis as a defendant about a year ago.
Rosenbaum said the case has been scheduled for trial three or four times over the past 4 1/2 years, but for various reasons, including overcrowded dockets, it has been delayed. It is now set for January.
Kidder and Dean are seeking unspecified damages. Their lawsuit states that Ocwen employees repeatedly found Minnis under a desk where a camera had been mounted. They also allege that Ocwen did nothing to investigate Minnis, even after repeated complaints about him.
Rosenbaum maintains that when Ocwen management learned of the allegations, Minnis was suspended. And within 48 hours, Minnis was fired, Rosenbaum said.
"Our position is, first of all, nobody has been damaged by this," Rosenbaum said. "If Mr. Minnis was somehow involved in any wrongdoing, that would be a matter that these ladies would have to take up with Mr. Minnis. Ocwen wouldn't be responsible for an alleged rogue employee taken outside the scope of his employment."
In April 2000, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office arrested Minnis and charged him with several crimes, including voyeurism.
He was accused of secretly filming two women inside their apartments and trying to open a bedroom window. During his arrest, Minnis told authorities that he sells video footage of women undressing. Those charges against Minnis have since been dropped.
Missy Stoddard can be reached at mstoddard@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2895.
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