State to pay $475K settlement in sexual harassment lawsuit

A state employee is set to receive part of an almost half-million-dollar settlement in a sexual harassment lawsuit after state officials voted Tuesday to approve the deal.

The Board of Examiners, comprised of Gov. Joe Lombardo, Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and Attorney General Aaron Ford, voted unanimously to approve the $475,000 settlement in a lawsuit brought by Rino Tenorio, a state employee who said he faced a hostile work environment because of his sexual orientation and retaliation.

According to a memo from the attorney general’s office, the case was settled prior to going to a jury trial to “avoid the costs of continued litigation and a possible adverse judgment by a jury.”

Tenorio, who is gay, was employed by the state Department of Taxation as an auditor for the Marijuana Enforcement Division in 2017 when he alleges the “severe, pervasive and unwelcomed sexual harassment” began, according to the lawsuit.

In 2017, Tenorio alleges a colleague harassed him with “unwanted and uninvited discussions of gay sex, gay jokes, obscene gay gestures and gay sexual sounds,” and a supervisor allowed, encouraged and “participated in, with laughter” the sexual harassment.

The harassment continued in 2018, when a different colleague photoshopped Tenorio’s face onto a picture of a woman wearing a dress, the lawsuit alleges. Tenorio complained to human resources and his supervisor, but they did nothing to address the complaints, according to the lawsuit.

In early 2019, Tenorio alleged a male colleague “emboldened by the hostile work environment” harassed him when the colleague placed chocolate kisses candy on Tenorio’s desk and stated, “Okay, you can kiss me now.”

After Tenorio filed the complaint, the lawsuit alleges the department retaliated against Tenorio by initiating an internal investigation based on “untrue allegations” of wrongdoing, placing him on “severe and prolonged” administrative leave and failing to complete the investigation into his complaint to HR.

The lawsuit also alleges he was excluded from an employee party and office training.

Tenorio filed a charge of discrimination in October 2019 with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission based on a hostile work environment, but the commission dismissed the complaint later that month on the basis that it was unable to conclude whether it violated state law.

Tenorio will receive $290,969 of the settlement and the remaining portion will be retained by his legal counsel.

Douglas Cohen, the lawyer representing Tenorio, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Contact Taylor R. Avery at TAvery@reviewjournal.com. Follow @travery98 on Twitter.