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Tuesday, April 23, 2024 | Back issues
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Yikes! Alarming Complaint Against Ex-Boss

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) - A highway striping executive called a former worker to confess he had secretly videotaped her in a restroom - and that prosecutors had seized his work computer with the videos, the Orange County woman claims in court.

Claudia Quintanilla sued Prestige Striping Services, its vice president Rick Trujillo, and president Sabas Trujillo, in Orange County Superior Court.

Quintanilla says she worked for the highway striping company from 2004 to 2009, more than two years of it at the company's Orange branch.

"During her employment, Sabas Trujillo made several sexual advances to Quintanilla. Each time, she told him she was not interested and asked him to stop," the complaint states.

About four years after she quit Prestige, she got a call out of the blue from Rick Trujillo, asking her to meet him at his home, Quintanilla claims in the lawsuit.

Though the request seemed "odd," Quintanilla went to Trujillo's house on July 31, she says. There, she says, Trujillo told her Prestige was under investigation for fraud and that authorities had seized his work computer.

The kicker, she says, is that Trujillo confessed to her that he had "secretly videotaped" her in the restroom of the Prestige's Orange office. "He then attempted to offer money for his outrageous [behavior] to Quintanilla. Upon hearing this, Quintanilla became very agitated and upset, immediately ended the meeting and left," the lawsuit states.

Quintanilla says she learned the extent of Trujillo's snooping during a two-hour meeting at the Riverside District Attorney's office.

"At the end of the meeting, the investigator advised her that they had found five (5) separate videos of Quintanilla on the computers taken from Prestige," the complaint states. "The investigator showed the videos to Quintanilla. Four (4) of the videos showed Quintanilla going to the restroom. The fifth video showed her undressing to change into her work out clothes. The videos clearly show Rick Trujillo setting up and removing the video camera from the restroom."

Quintanilla claims that because the video had been stored for years "it seems apparent that Rick Trujillo continued to re-watch the videos after they were taken."

She seeks damages for privacy invasion and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Quintanilla is represented by Terence Carney with Wesierski & Zurek, of Irvine.

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