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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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Woman Says Boss Gave Her Two Children

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (CN) - A clinic director claims in court that her married boss forced her to have sex with him, fathered two of her children, and threatened to kill her - that "if he could not have her then no one could."

Sharon Dianne Waltz sued Jonathan Wade Dunning and Birmingham Health Care, in Jefferson County Court.

Waltz says she began working at Birmingham Health Care in 2001, during her post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Birmingham Health Care is a nonprofit community health center serving the greater Birmingham area.

After Waltz completed her fellowship in the fall of 2002, the company hired her as its clinical director, according to the complaint.

Waltz says she was divorced, with two children, and had recently moved back to Birmingham. She claims that Dunning, her supervisor at Birmingham Health Care, sexually harassed her for years, got her pregnant and threatened to kill her if she left him or took his children away.

"From October 2002 until March 2003 defendant Dunning began to sexually harass the plaintiff," the complaint states.

"Defendant Dunning began taking the plaintiff on business luncheons and meetings including out-of-town meetings.

"In Montgomery, March 2003, defendant Dunning told the plaintiff he had feelings for her and only wanted people around him that shared those feelings and were loyal to him.

"In April 2003, at the Birmingham Health Care dinner, defendant Dunning took the plaintiff back to his office, closed and locked the door and started kissing and taking off her clothes without her permission or consent. Dunning said he wanted to have the plaintiff all to himself and that he needed the plaintiff to be successful. Dunning forced the plaintiff to have sex with him in his office on that occasion and on numerous occasions thereafter threatening her with her job, income and security. Further, Dunning demanded that the plaintiff travel with him and stay in his room.

"Defendant Dunning demanded that the plaintiff call him by certain romantic names, wear certain outfits for him, including high heels and skimpy negligees, and demanded that the plaintiff never tell anyone at their place of work or any relative of his, including his wife, of any of the actions that were occurring. Dunning threatened the plaintiff that if she did not take any of these steps that her employment would be terminated and her future would be ruined and that he would make sure that she would not find another job.

"The plaintiff attempted to leave Birmingham Health Care in 2004 and had packed her office and left her resignation letter. She also found out that she was pregnant with defendant Dunning's child. Plaintiff made Dunning aware of such and he demanded that she not leave the company and told her that if he could not have her then no one could.

"Defendant Dunning continually demanded sex and in May 2005 he impregnated the plaintiff again, at which time he went to the hospital but did not take the plaintiff home nor did he agree for his name to be put on the birth certificate. At that time he told the plaintiff that he loved her and that he only stayed with his wife because she was an awful mother and it was his responsibility to be the father to his children with his wife."

Waltz claims Dunning continued to sexually harass her for the next year, and got her pregnant again.

"After the second child was born, defendant Dunning told the plaintiff that the plaintiff and the two children were his property and that he would kill anyone, including the plaintiff, if any attempt was made to take them away from him," the complaint states.

"On numerous occasions during the term of the employment, defendant Dunning told the plaintiff that he had made her a success, that he had overpaid her, that she was nothing without him and that if he couldn't have her then no one would and that he would kill any SOB that took her away from him. The reason he said he overpaid her was for the sex.

"The plaintiff has subsequently learned that defendant Dunning has used sex with other women concerning their employment by him.

"The plaintiff lived in constant fear of her safety and wellbeing by defendant Dunning.

"Defendant Dunning has made sex videos of himself and the plaintiff on his phone without the plaintiff's permission and said he would use them against her if she ever left him."

She seeks an injunction and compensatory and punitive damages for discrimination and harassment, invasion of privacy, negligent hiring and supervision, assault and battery, and emotional distress.

She is represented by William Bright Jr.

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