There has been a significant ruling in the former NFL star Teyo Johnson’s lawsuit alleging sexual harassment by Everyrealm CEO Janine Yorio. Teyo will now be able to make his claims in court after a federal judge allowed his lawsuit to go to trial. This is good news!
The New York Post got the details;
Johnson has alleged in court papers that Everyrealm CEO Janine Yorio came onto him, urged him to sleep with co-workers, made lewd comments about his sexual preferences, and uttered racist remarks.
Johnson also has claimed that he was forced to quit after rejecting Yorio’s advances.
Yorio has denied the allegations.
Everyrealm — whose backers include the Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz and which has tapped celebrity endorsers including Paris Hilton and Will Smith — has claimed that Johnson was fired due to poor performance, including falling asleep on the job, and that he made disparaging comments about women and their reproductive systems.
US District Judge Paul. A. Engelmayer handed down a 41-page ruling last Friday denying a bid by Everyrealm to force the case into arbitration.
In his ruling, Engelmayer concluded that Johnson’s lawsuit “pled a plausible claim of sexual harassment” and that Everyrealm had no legal ground to force the matter into arbitration due to a recent change in the law signed by President Biden last year.
Yost alleged that she was harassed when Yorio began “discussing another employee’s purported sex life at work.”
Yost alleged in court papers that Yorio “specifically targeted Yost with such comments because Yost is openly bisexual” and Yorio “thought that this attribute made [Yost] an expert on others’ sexual orientations.”
But Engelmayer ruled that the alleged remarks by Yorio are “disconnected from any protected characteristic of the plaintiff’s,” according to court papers.
Shane Seppinni, who represents Johnson, Yost, and another ex-employee who has filed suit against Everyrealm, said that Yost’s other claims, including that she was paid an annual salary of more than $100,000 less than that of men “with less experience in similarly leveled roles who had similar responsibilities,” have not been dismissed.
Everyrealm has accused Johnson of making “extortionate” demands for a settlement totaling $1.9 million in damages.
Flip to the next page for photos of Janine Yorio…