HOUSTON – A Harris County woman employed by an insurance agency has brought a sexual harassment lawsuit against the proprietor, recent state district court records show.
Esthefanny Y. Garcia is suing State Farm agent Fernando De La Rosa, doing business as Fernando De La Rosa Insurance Co., having initiated legal action on Jan. 2 in the Harris County 333rd District Court.
A customer service representative for De La Rosa, Garcia alleges he regularly made inappropriate comments about her and attempted to get her to acquiesce to his sexual advances during much of last year.
The plaintiff further asserts that a few private meetings with her superior involved him placing her on his lap. In Garcia’s most recent meeting with De La Rosa, he purportedly told the complainant, “You know you and I do not have a ‘normal’ employee-boss relationship” to her disgust.
The suit says Garcia then filed a police report on De La Rosa though it does not mention if the respondent faced charges. It adds the plaintiff filed a discrimination claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission only to have the charge dismissed because “De La Rosa employs fewer than the required number of employees and was not covered by Title VII.”
Consequently, Garcia seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
She is represented by attorney Robert A. Whitley of the law firm Blasingame Whitley in Houston.
Harris County 333rd District Court Case No. 2018-0071