Owner of last Howard Johnson restaurant jailed for sexual harassment
QUEENSBURY, N.Y. - The owner of what's believed to be the nation's last Howard Johnson restaurant has been sentenced to six months in jail for sexually harassing employees.
The Post-Star of Glens Falls in upstate New York reports 65-year-old Jonathan LaRock, of Moreau, was sentenced Wednesday to six months in the Warren County Jail followed by six years' probation. LaRock pleaded guilty in September to 26 counts of forcible touching and unlawful imprisonment.
LaRock was arrested last year after a 17-year-old employee at LaRock's Howard Johnson restaurant in Lake George told police she had been sexually harassed. An investigation revealed LaRock had routinely propositioned and sexually harassed female employees for years.
One of the victims testified that she had "panic attacks and nightmares" for months after the assault.