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SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

Friday, March 29, 2024

Harris Co. woman says drug testing company fired her for lodging sexual harassment complaints

Wrongful term 14

HOUSTON – A Harris County woman alleges that she lost her job with a drug testing company because she complained about sexual harassment.

Christina Johnson sued Lord & Tona LLC, doing business as USA Mobile Drug Testing of Houston, on Oct. 12 in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas. Per her complaint, the defendant employed her as a medical assistant from September 2014 to November 2015, and during that time, she experienced the harassment in question from a nurse practitioner named Tony Ononye.

Ononye reportedly asked Johnson about her marital status and was believed to have touched the plaintiff inappropriately on a few occasions.

Johnson says that she reported Ononye, who is not a party in the case, to the defendant’s human resources department and CEO Tone Trondsen to no avail. Instead, court documents say, the complainant was demoted to an off-site collector position.

Johnson returned to her medical assistant position. She claims that Ononye continued the harassment, which purportedly culminated in the latter assaulting her in November 2015.

The suit further asserts the defendant expressed indifference to Johnson’s grievances. Trondsen conceded that Ononye’s behavior was unacceptable, but told the complainant she needed to “put on her big girl pants,” the original petition says.

The defendant terminated Johnson to which she argues was a retaliatory move.

Consequently, the plaintiff seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.

She is represented by attorneys Todd Slobin and Dorian Vandenberg-Rodes of the law firm Shellist Lazarz Slobin LLP in Houston.

Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas Case No. 4:16-CV-3034

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