Landlord to pay $2M to settle sexual harassment claims
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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — A Bakersfield landlord will pay a record amount to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Rawland Leon Sorensen owns dozens of residential rental properties and has operated his business for more than 30 years.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleged that Sorensen sexually harassed female tenants by making unwelcome sexual comments and advances, exposing his genitals to female tenants, touching tenants without their consent, granting and denying housing benefits based on sex, and taking adverse action against women who refused his sexual advances.
Sorensen will pay more than $2 million in monetary damages and civil penalties to settle the lawsuit. The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday that this is the largest monetary settlement ever agreed to in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the Justice Department under the Fair Housing Act.
He will also be required to hire an independent manager to oversee his properties, and he must imposes strict limits on his ability to have contact with current and future tenants.
"All the allegations are not true, and lawyers are coaching the accusers to match their stories," Sorensen told Eyewitness News in a March 2011 interview.
Tuesday, federal officials called Sorensen's actions "egregious."
"Women have the right to feel safe in their homes and not to be subjected to sexual harassment just because their families need housing. The Justice Department can and will vigorously prosecute landlords who violate those rights," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
Never get between a lawyer and a pile of cash.
The only reason he settled was because his lawyers advised him after firing sand hiring new ones 3 times ,they all repeatedly told him you cant beat the justice dept.and he is not guilty I know this for a fact .These women who did this to him will pay for it one of these days .Karma !!
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My family has rented from Mr. Sorenson for over 30 yrs and he never ever made any sexual comments to me or my mother or my sisters or my daughters and I am appalled that he has lost what he has worked so hard for all his life to these so called women tenants that I call trash !!
Sorenson has a "twitch" if you will, you notice that he was "licking his lips" in the above video. That's just what he does.Â
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He can show me his genitals for $2 million.Â
If you're innocent, why settle? You can't get me to settle nor plead guilty to something I didn't do. Settleing makes him look guilty. I think he did it..
Oh yes, everyone is just against the creepy perverted landlord and he is just a sweet heart...not
pimp
 @Dan Gordon -Pimpin ain't easy.Â