KBR Sued Again, This Time for Male-on-Male Sexual Harassment

A new lawsuit adds an unusual dimension to all the claims of sexual deviance at Kellogg, Brown & Root.

Gregory Thomas, a former KBR employee, is suing because he says that another male employee sexually harassed him in the office while working in Iraq, and that he was fired after complaining about the abuse.

"On at least one occasion, [the male employee] rubbed his groin on [Thomas's] desk, and said, 'You know what I'm doing, I'm rubbing myself on your desk,'" claims the lawsuit, filed yesterday in Houston federal court.

Other alleged incidents include "sticky surprises" in Thomas's work area and pictures of another man's testicles on Thomas's digital camera. The employee also used a black marker to write that he "Fucking Rules" on the camera's memory stick, according to the lawsuit.

Those incidents are far from typical office high jinks, but the situation really got serious when, according to the lawsuit, the employee spread rumors among co-workers that Thomas was a sexual predator and "liked little boys."

After Thomas told his supervisors about this, they did nothing but implied it was his own fault, the lawsuit says. KBR management fired Thomas in September of 2005, after he continued to report the harassment.

Trang Q. Tran, Thomas's attorney, was not immediately available for comment, and Hair Balls sent an e-mail to a KBR spokeswoman, but we haven't received a response.

-- Paul Knight

UPDATE: Thomas's attorney contacted Hair Balls and said that he plans to file an amended lawsuit, with more details and additional claims of sexual harassment, as soon as all the facts are checked. "If this guy could get away with doing sexual gyrations on my client's desk, then other people can do whatever they like, because they see that there are no parameters."

KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne also got back with Hair Balls, issuing a no comment.

Original here