HOUSTON – The Texas Renaissance Festival and Stargate Manor Arboretum are accused in a federal lawsuit of terminating a female employee who allegedly pushed back against her superior for ordering her to perform tasks she thought were inappropriate.
Eileen Pena filed the suit on May 16 in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas. Per Pena, she accepted a full-time permanent position supporting TRF’s general manager in late 2015 only to discover that she was actually hired to work as the personal assistant to the entity’s owner, George Coulam, and accounting assistant to SMA.
Court papers allege that Coulam “tasked (the plaintiff) with several unwelcome, sexually offensive and inappropriate personal tasks such as finding him women to date and managing others tasked with finding him women.” Pena worked from Coulam’s residence, the suit says.
Pena recalls that she and other female employees spent the next year searching for dates for Coulam online in addition to compiling folders with pictures and notes. Coulam told the plaintiff demeaning stories about the women and even brought home some of his dates during supposed business hours, the complaint says.
The suit further asserts Pena was afraid of calling Coulam out on his mistreatment of her until July 29, 2016 when she told him “very clearly and calmly” his behavior was inappropriate.
Pena then went on a weeklong vacation, but was terminated immediately upon entering Coulam’s home on Aug. 8, 2016.
She claims her firing was retaliatory.
Consequently, the plaintiff seeks unspecified monetary damages.
She is represented by Gregg M. Rosenberg of the law firm Rosenberg | Sprovach in Houston.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas Case No. 4:18-CV-1610