Former employee of Colorado bar Starlite Station encouraged by sexual harassment settlement: "My voice was heard"

Three years after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit against a Greeley bar, its owners must pay $100,000 to 13 former employees.

Starlite Station was a western bar and dance hall that operated near the Greeley Mall from 2018 until 2021, when the bar closed after its lease was terminated. The EEOC says this case is an example of how closing a business does not mean owners can escape liability.

Sophia McElroy has mixed feelings about her time at Starlite Station, a now-shuttered western-themed bar in Greeley where she worked in 2020 and 2021.

"It was super great, until it wasn't," McElroy said.

As a Starlite "shot girl" at the ages of 19 and 20, McElroy says she experienced sexual harassment from the bar's owner, James Jennings.

"He was grabbing my shoulders and kind of massaging me, which freaked me out, in a sense, because he's way too old to be touching me like that. And my boss at the time, and he had told me that I was his personal trouble, which felt really dangerous to me," McElroy said.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, she's not the only one.

In 2022, the agency filed the lawsuit against Starlite, alleging its operator, Murica LLC, created a sexually hostile work environment.

The complaint alleges Jennings made derogatory and harassing comments about female applicants, including saying they were "too ugly" to be hired, and that he touched employees without consent.

"We were told that we had to dress a certain way, look a certain way. We were told certain things about which parts of our bodies need to be looked at a certain way," McElroy said. "James used to come into what we called our hen house, which was our dressing room, unannounced, would kind of just barge in, give the shoulder massages, give the whispers in the ears. It was very predatory and very possessive."

The suit also alleges Jennings attempted to engage in sexual relationships with employees, even having sex with an intoxicated employee at the bar.

It also claims that Starlite retaliated against employees who spoke out against Jennings' conduct.

"It was an understanding that we all went back to James's house after work for the after-party and the debrief of the night, and if you weren't there, then you wouldn't be scheduled to better shifts, you wouldn't be prioritized in cuts for the night," McElroy said. "It was also a sense of, if you don't do this, there's going to be a retaliation for it, which was another big issue was staff retaliation when speaking up or walking out."

McElroy went on to say:

"At the time, I was so young, this was five years ago for me, and I had no idea what I was actually experiencing, but I knew how I felt about it, and I knew that it was really condescending and degrading."

McElroy first told CBS Colorado her story three years ago when the complaint was filed.

"I just started crying because I'm like somebody did something, and now I think I have the opportunity to do it, too," she said in an October 2022 interview with Olivia Young.

After the interview, she joined the lawsuit.

"That lit our fire, that we understood this is actually so much bigger than just what we experienced. This needs to never happen again to anyone," McElroy said.

Earlier this year, McElroy spent hours in a courthouse, where a settlement was finally reached.

Starlite's owners, which the EEOC identifies as Jennings and his mother, are to pay $100,000 in monetary relief to former employees.

"It was really, really encouraging and validating that I was seen and my voice was heard and so were the other... individuals," McElroy said.

McElroy has already received her share of $4,500.

"I used it for my down payment for cosmetology school, actually," McElroy said. "You can't take my future away from me, and in fact, you're going to help pay for it."

The case was resolved through a five-year consent decree, which includes that monetary relief as well as required training on equal employment opportunity, review and revision of EEO policies, and other provisions for any future businesses run by Jennings or his mother.

CBS Colorado's Olivia Young made multiple attempts to reach James Jennings and his attorneys but never heard back.

When Young spoke to Jennings three years ago, he denied all personal allegations against him.

As part of the settlement, he signed apology letters to the former employees.

"I have it framed. It's in my man cave," McElroy said. "It's as much as we could have hoped for an apology letter, because, frankly, he probably wouldn't have even written it if he hadn't been ordered to sign it."

McElroy hopes the settlement will inspire others to speak up about harassment in the workplace.

"If it's an office, if it's a bar, if it's anything where you're experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace, you need to immediately speak up," McElroy said. "It's not right, and it will never be right. So be vocal about it, and if you see it, say something about it."