Jennifer Kincheloe Fired For Reading '50 Shades Of Grey'? Lawsuit Claims Book, Having 'Pot Smoking Friends' Led To Pink Slip For Bank Manager
A Missouri bank employee filed a discrimination lawsuit claiming she was fired from her job for reading “50 Shades of Grey” and having “pot smoking friends.”
The lawsuit, filed in Missouri state court in Jackson County and first highlighted by Courthouse News Service, says Blue Ridge Bank and Trust Co. branch manager Jennifer Kincheloe, 40, was canned September 6, 2012, and replaced “by a substantially younger female.”
Kincheloe “was terminated for alleged attendance issues, having ‘pot smoking friends,’ and reading or discussing a novel called 50 Shades of Grey,” the lawsuit claims. “Plaintiff’s last evaluation was good and she had not received any notification that there were any shortcomings in her work.”
While Kincheloe was given those reasons for being fired, her lawsuit claims the real reason she was given a pink slip is because she rejected the advances of her boss, Hap Graff.
Graff, the director of retail services for Blue Ridge, allegedly called Kincheloe “hot” and gave her compliments on her hair and clothes. A month before she was fired, Kincheloe, who worked for Blue Ridge for 19 years, claimed Graff asked her to go to a restaurant after work but she refused.
According to the suit, Kincheloe said she was told she “was performing her job in a manner satisfactory to” the company. She said that Graff’s actions caused her “pain, anguish, anxiety, and distress.”
Both Graff and Blue Ridge are named as defendants in the workplace discrimination suit. Kincheloe is requesting punitive damages, lost wages, attorney fees and other unspecified damages.
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