Store Manager Subjected Customer Service Rep to Sexual Assault, Federal Agency Charged EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill.– The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the settlement of an egregious harassment case against Aaron Rents, Inc., doing business as Aaron Sales & Lease Ownership (Aaron), for significant remedial relief on behalf of a young female worker who was allegedly subjected to a sexually hostile workplace and assaulted by a store manager. In its lawsuit, filed on September 30, 2008, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Case No. 3:08-cv-00683-MJR-DGW), the EEOC alleged that the general manager of Aaron’s Fairview Heights, Ill.-based store made sexually explicit comments and requests for sex on a regular basis to Ashley Alford, a young customer service representative. The EEOC alleged that the manager repeatedly attempted to force Alford to have sex with him and that the harassment escalated until he sexually assaulted Alford in the store...