SANTA ROSA, Calif. (CN) - In a lurid lawsuit, a former employee claims the Marin County-based Foundation for Critical Thinking is a "cultlike" group whose married bosses tried to make him have sex with the wife, and fired him for refusing.
Enoch Hale sued The Foundation for Critical Thinking, Linda Elder and her husband Richard Paul, in Sonoma County Court.
Hale, a 40-year-old married man and father, claims he quit his job as a high school teacher to accept an offer to work as a "full-time Fellow" for the Foundation for Critical Thinking (FCT) in August 2004.
According to the complaint, the Foundation for Critical Thinking, based in Tomales, "trains educators how to analyze information in an 'objective 'fair-minded' manner, without allowing their own biases, prejudices and opinions to influence their objective analysis of an issue. It is a 'think tank' of sorts that promotes a casual work environment. Defendants Elder and Paul frequently hold meetings at both FCT offices and their personal residence, where they sit and lie on the floor amongst pillows. To encourage the free flow of ideas, defendants Elder and Paul often discuss uncomfortable topics, and encourage employees to rid themselves of social, including sexual, taboos. The cult-like unprofessional atmosphere present at FCT and nurtured by defendants Elder and Paul created a hostile work environment for FTC [sic] employees, including Hale."
About three years after he was hired, Hale claims, Elder and Paul began bringing up "inappropriate sexual topics" and asking him "about his sex life with his wife" during business meetings. He claims that Elder frequently asked him if he wanted her sexually.
Hale says the frank sex talk made him uncomfortable, but he put up with it because other employees were fired or forced to quit if they disagreed with Elder and Paul.
In October 2010, Hale claims, Elder and Paul graduated from discussing sex to encouraging him to have sex with Elder.
After calling Hale to a meeting, Paul "explained to Hale that he was concerned about defendant Elder, his younger wife by approximately 20 years, and wanted to ensure that her sexual urges could be satisfied," the complaint states. "Defendant Paul proposed that Hale should have sexual intercourse with Paul's wife, defendant Elder, while defendant Paul observed them. Hale immediately became uncomfortable and anxious, as he listened to defendant Paul, and worried about his ability to keep his job, if he declined. Hale politely declined defendant Paul's request."
The complaint continues: "On or about January 9, 2011, another similar meeting took place in the Tomales offices. Paul and Elder were laying on pillows and asked Hale to join them on the floor. Hale refused and said he would be more comfortable sitting on the couch which he did. Paul and Elder began questioning Hale's concept of 'intimacy.' Paul then suggested that the Hale [sic] have sex with Elder. Once again Hale denied the request. At the end of this meeting, defendant Paul proposed that they all have a group hug. Hale did not want to engage in a group hug and hesitated, but was urged by defendant Paul and Elder to participate.