Topgolf Las Vegas cases triggered national study on sexual harassment
A survey of more than 70 current and former Topgolf employees at 28 flagships found that a “pattern and practice of sexual harassment” is “pervading the entire corporation,” according to a new report.
The 23-page report — titled “Stopgolf” — was published this month by One Fair Wage and Survivors Know following roughly nine months of research that was prompted by a group of former Topgolf Las Vegas kitchen employees who spoke out publicly against the company.
At least five individuals have accused former sous chef Silvino Hinojosa of sexual harassment or abuse. Four of them sued Topgolf, accusing the company of a “fratboy” culture that protected and enabled a “serial sexual predator.” The federal lawsuits were settled out of court last month, records show.
“This report would not exist but for them,” their attorney, James J. Lee, said. “I’m in awe of the personal courage it took for them to be willing to speak about something that was so difficult.”
Among the report’s key findings:
— Fifty-four percent of respondents reported being sexually harassed while working at Topgolf.
— Twenty-seven percent reported being sexually assaulted. That figure jumped to 50 percent for women of color younger than 50.
— Every Black, Indigenous and Hispanic woman younger than 50 who participated in the research reported being sexually harassed at work.
— Almost 55 percent of women reported increased harassment and/or hostility in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report also includes information gathered from 12 legal cases against the company, including the two lawsuits filed by Lee in Nevada, and cites reporting by the Review-Journal, the first news outlet to publish stories about the alleged working conditions at Topgolf Las Vegas, where sexual harassment and abuse ran rampant in the kitchen, according to court documents.
The most serious accusations detailed in the Review-Journal’s stories included claims that Hinojosa, the sous chef, lured prep cook Elba Servin to a vacant home and raped her in June 2016 and that he assaulted pastry chef Ciara Williams inside a walk-in freezer in Topgolf’s kitchen a year later. Their allegations led to criminal charges.
Williams — the first of Hinojosa’s accusers to speak out — released her first public statement Thursday since coming forward publicly with her allegations last October.
“To this day it hurts so badly,” Williams wrote in her statement to the Review-Journal, adding that she “was damaged, tainted, ashamed.”
The statement continued: “My goal for 2022 is to remind myself that even in the darkest parts of my life, there is always another day and that one day I will find my reason to go forward in life without the pain, nightmares, and constant feeling of hopelessness.”
‘It haunted me’
The news stories led other former Topgolf workers to contact the attorney representing Servin and Williams.
“It really all started with Ciara and Elba,” Lee said this week.
Among those to reach out was Samantha Velasquez-Knowles, whose employment at Topgolf Las Vegas in 2016 overlapped with that of Servin and Williams.
Her experience working at the Las Vegas flagship is detailed in the new report by One Fair Wage and Survivors Know.
According to the report, a kitchen manager followed her into a walk-in freezer, where he sexually assaulted her. Another colleague who witnessed the alleged assault “reported it to Topgolf’s Human Resources department,” the report states. Not long after, Velasquez-Knowles was fired in what she says was an act of retaliation by the company.
“I didn’t want to get the police involved because I was scared. I was just betrayed by authorities at Topgolf, and so I was too scared,” Velasquez-Knowles, now 26, told the Review-Journal. “Ever since then, it has haunted me. It haunted me for so long.”
By the time she came across one of the news stories this year, roughly four years had gone by since her termination. All that time, she said, she had “no idea” that others had experienced similar treatment and alleged abuse while working for the company.
“I started crying. I wanted to reach out to them,” she said, referring to Servin and Williams. “I wanted to cry with them, and also let them know something like this happened to me, too. And that they weren’t alone.”
In all, Velasquez-Knowles was employed by Topgolf for under 6 months. But the brief window of employment would dramatically alter her life’s course in the years that followed.
An aspiring chef, Velasquez-Knowles had attended culinary school prior to working at Topgolf with big dreams to one day open a restaurant or work as a private chef.
Topgolf, she said, “killed that” for her.
She and her son, who was 1 at the time of her termination, now live in Virginia, where she works in delivery services.
“I’ve taken a step back from the culinary field,” Velasquez-Knowles said.
But with help and support from Survivors Know, which has connected her and other former Topgolf employees to form a “solidarity circle,” Velasquez-Knowles said she’s started to imagine a future for herself in the culinary industry once again.
Maybe in a small cafe, she said, or a food truck.
“I want to open up a place where it’s safe,” she told the Review-Journal. “Where it’s fair.”
‘Not going away’
Topgolf did not respond to a request for comment about the recently published report, but in an April statement to the Review-Journal said the allegations “certainly are not representative or reflective of Topgolf, our associates or our culture.”
“Let us be clear that any type of harassment has absolutely no place at Topgolf, and we have robust policies and procedures in place that prohibit this type of behavior,” the statement continued.
JoEllen Chernow, co-director of Survivors Know, said neither of the organizations behind the new report had heard from Topgolf as of this week. But Chernow said she’s hopeful that will change once the organizations reach out to the company’s shareholders and investors with their findings.
“We’re not going away,” Chernow said, adding that “this is really an effort born out of survivors who really want to make Topgolf a place where people feel safe and where they can thrive.”
The report concludes with a list of “structural changes” that survey respondents said they wanted to see happen within the company, including the implementation of an ethics oversight committee and a monthly survey that would help the committee “identify and prevent harassment issues.”
One can read the full “Stopgolf” report at www.survivorsknow.org.
Meanwhile, Hinojosa, the sous chef at the center of the Las Vegas cases, remains jailed at the Clark County Detention Center as he awaits sentencing in an unrelated sexual assault case that prosecutors have said involved a 4-year-old victim.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, Hinojosa pleaded no contest in August to attempted sexual assault and child abuse. The plea bargain, upon sentencing next month, will resolve the two pending criminal cases stemming from the attacks on Servin and Williams.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.