A Benton County attorney, who runs a multi-state immigration and personal injury law firm, is being sued for allegedly harassing four of his legal assistants.
Four former employees, all Latina, accused Brandon Ritchie of a pattern of sexual harassment, making racist, sexist and demeaning jokes and refusing to stop even after being told to.
The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Richland names Ritchie, his partner Eric Reierson and the law firm.
The women claim Ritchie and the firm violated federal civil rights laws, Washington state discrimination laws and inflicted emotional distress.
The law firm has offices in Kennewick, Yakima, Tacoma and Moses Lake, along with sites in Oregon, Idaho and Arizona.
“Under the law, employees are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their race or gender,” the women’s attorney, Victoria Vreeland, said in a news release announcing that the case was filed.
“They have the right to be safe from sexual harassment which demeans and injures not only those who are targeted, but creates and unreasonably toxic and hostile workplace for all,” she said.
She claims Ritchie’s actions were made worse by the fact they cast themselves as trusted advocates for immigrant clients’ rights.
The Tri-City Herald emailed Ritchie to ask for comment about the lawsuit but didn’t receive a response on Wednesday.
Ritchie, who has been an attorney since 2012, has focused his practice on personal injury law, according to the Washington State Bar Association.
Reierson added his name to the firm in 2016, about five years after finishing law school.
Their firm has actively pursued clients looking for help navigating immigration issues. That included sending employees to nearby farms with lunches for workers, advertising on Spanish-language radio stations and sponsoring Hispanic-focused events in the community, the lawsuit said.
Sexual harassment claim
The four women who sued — Brenda Frias Perez, Gloria Guizar Negrette, Patricia Lozano and Oralia Gutierrez-Verduzco — started with the firm in late 2021 or early 2022.
Vreeland alleges that Ritchie liked to hire young Latinas to work as non-lawyer employees, receptionists and paralegals. He allegedly said they were more passive, wouldn’t complain or press for higher pay.
The four who are suing were younger than 30 and hired into the firm’s immigration department.
“On a daily basis and at times more than once a day, he repeatedly and openly leered and stared at their bodies,” the complaint said about Ritchie. “He was very obvious in his actions of locking into a stare and leering at woman’s chest and breasts for long periods of time, in nearly every encounter.”
Ritchie also allegedly asked them personal and intimate questions during their interviews, such as whether they planned to get married, if they had kids or in one case, whether the woman wore a ring “to avoid getting hit on by guys,” the complaint said.
After they were hired, Ritchie would on a daily basis take “every opportunity to peek, peer and stare “ at them, said the lawsuit.
As it continued, the women felt “naked, exposed and vulnerable” and became scared, said the suit. Vreeland wrote that they tried to cover up as much as possible, changed the clothes they were wearing and tried to block his view of them. They also tried to avoid him entirely.
The women learned from co-workers that his behavior was normal, according to the complaint.
‘Demeaning,’ ‘racist’ comments
In addition, the suit claims he made racist and demeaning comments.
He mocked immigrant laborers for wearing dirty clothes and held their lack of education in contempt. He insulted Mexican music and said Spanish speaking clients should learn English, said the suit.
He also allegedly called Latina employees his “burritos.”
When Frias and Guizar said they wanted to attend law school and said they were part of a Heritage University pre-law program, Ritchie allegedly told them several times that they would be admitted regardless of their test scores or abilities because of “Affirmative Action.”
Ritchie told the women that “he went to law school with five ‘Mexicans’ and six Blacks and they ‘were the dumbest people (he) ever met,’” according to complaint.
Apology letter
The women said they complained to their managers and other attorneys about the issues but nothing changed.
Their direct manager, Richard Razo, allegedly said he’d heard it before and “that was just how Ritchie was, and that he was not going to change,” said the suit.
They sought help from the only Latina attorney in the firm, Jennifer Diaz, who was working in the Kennewick office at the time. She spoke to Reiersen on their behalf.
He asked for a letter detailing the concerns. Three days after they handed over a letter, Ritchie sent an “apology,” said the complaint.
“He did not deny the conduct they described. He expressly acknowledged that he had ‘crossed the professional line,’ but tried to claim his actions were not with malicious intent,” said the suit.
Ritchie met with the women and other attorneys and their manager the day after sending the letter. He reportedly praised the women and acknowledged that the behavior they complained about had been raised by other people.
“He said if they caught him staring at women inappropriately again to ‘kick him in the shins,’” the complaint said.
The suit claims his tone changed, however, after the women presented a list of demands that included hiring a human resources manager, changing their reporting structure and paying appropriate wages.
They claim Ritchie became harsh and defensive, saying he couldn’t afford to make those changes and they should just trust that he would change.
Diaz allegedly told the women that she experienced the same harassment from Ritchie. When Ritchie asked what she would tell a federal agency if the women complained, Diaz explained that she would tell the truth, and hoped he would too.
Within a few days, she was fired, leading to a lawsuit filed in King County that ended in a settlement.
‘Treated as outcasts’
After that meeting, the women and other immigration paralegals were told they couldn’t take breaks together and now would have weekly meetings to talk about their performance and assignments, said the suit.
They said they were watched and tasked with preparing training materials for virtual legal assistants and paralegals that would replace them.
After the meeting, Ritchie actively avoided the women and looked up at the ceiling when he had to speak with them.
“His behavior mocked the seriousness of their complaints and his behavior,” she said. “They were treated as outcasts and ostracized. It was humiliating and punitive.”
The suit claims while he stopped leering at the women who complained, he continued to stare at other women in the office.
The women also claim they were assigned more work after other paralegals left in apparent attempt to get them to quit, said the suit.
Within three months of the meeting, Frias resigned, followed by Guizar, a month later.
Lozano left the firm in April, and Gutierrez-Verduzco was fired in March 2024.
Source Agencies
