OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The Justice Division reached a $1.25 million settlement Wednesday with the property of an Oklahoma Metropolis man to resolve claims of sexual harassment in opposition to feminine tenants.
The person and landlord on the middle of the case, Walter Ray Pelfrey, has been lifeless since 2018. In keeping with a information launch from the performing U.S. Lawyer for the Western District of Oklahoma, Robert Troester, Pelfrey allegedly requested tenants for intercourse in change for hire and even housing as a complete.
Pelfrey could have died in 2018, however the sexual assault allegations loomed in opposition to he and his property. Over 40 victims are claiming he dedicated the acts over the previous 20 years at dozens of properties he owned or managed across the Oklahoma Metropolis metro.
The swimsuit is about to drive a payout of $1.2 million in damages to the alleged victims and one other $50,000 in civil penalties to the U.S. authorities. Prosecutors allege he demanded “…potential tenants interact in sexual acts to acquire housing, providing to cut back hire and overlooking unpaid hire in change for sexual activity or contact, evicting and threatening to evict feminine tenants for refusing his sexual advances.” The report goes on to say Pelfrey allegedly groped ladies and entered their properties “unannounced and with out their consent to additional these advances.”
The lawsuit isn’t all although. In 2016, Oklahoma Metropolis police discovered teenager Geanna Durham went lacking. It was alleged that the woman’s mother, Reshawnda Durham, did not report discovering her lifeless daughter at her Oklahoma Metropolis residence. Durham allegedly took her physique to a storage facility owned by Pelfrey, the place she rented a unit, and allegedly left her daughter’s physique there. Pelfrey was then alleged to have instructed his employees to clear out the contents of Durham’s rental unit and delete her rental data.
Pelfrey was charged within the case with one depend of accent after the very fact. He was additionally charged with one depend of illegal elimination of a physique or, within the various, desecration of a human corpse.
A Justice Division information launch states “the defendants — Rosemarie Pelfrey, in her capability as trustee of two named trusts and as private consultant of Pelfrey’s property, Omega Enterprises LLC and Pelfrey Funding Firm Inc. — have been named within the lawsuit as a result of they owned the properties at which the discriminatory conduct befell, and are due to this fact vicariously liable for his or her agent Pelfrey’s harassment.”
The settlement states the defendants should present Honest Housing Act coaching for his or her workers, present a grievance process to tenants and launch judgments obtained in opposition to victims whom Pelfrey wrongfully evicted.
