IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. — A 16-year-old Iron Mountain girl is suing a McDonald's franchise after an alleged sexual assault by a newly hired manager.
The 16-year-old is seeking compensation for damages and attorney fees in the lawsuit against the franchise owner.
The alleged sexual assault took place on March 29, 2022, at a McDonald's in Iron Mountain and resulted in the arrest of the manager, 36-year-old Brandon Porter.
Porter ended up getting convicted of aggravated assault after striking a plea deal with the prosecutor. He was ordered to 180 days in prison.
Porter had been hired by Kilian Management Services, Inc., a Wisconsin-based corporation that owns and operates McDonald's franchises in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin, just one week before the assault took place.
Porter's lewd conduct towards the 16-year-old employee began almost immediately by making sexually suggestive comments to the minor employee, including "telling her that he wished she were 18 years old," court documents allege.
The 16-year-old reported Porter's conduct to Alexis Rundell, the person responsible for Porter's training.
A second minor employee also allegedly reported to Rundell that Porter made sexual comments directed at her.
The reports were made to Rundell six days before the assault took place and no disciplinary action was taken, the court documents allege. Instead, Rundell continued to train Porter as a manager.
The 16-year-old shared that Porter had made an especially vulgar statement to her the day before the assault took place. She says that she was very distressed by the "overtly sexual" comment.
On March 29, 2022, Porter assaulted the 16-year-old proceeding "to touch her body without her consent, rubbing her arms, shoulders, and lower back, grabbing her around the hips, and pulling on her shirt to untuck it."
When she asked him to stop and attempted to get away, Porter followed her around, continuing to touch her and press his body up against her.
The court documents claim that Porter repeatedly asked the girl to "go into the back with him" saying that she would "enjoy it."
This physical and verbal assault lasted for two hours until another employee called her father, a local undersheriff, for help.
Rundell was at the McDonald's location for the duration of the incident and witnessed much of it.
Court documents say that Rundell told the 16-year-old and another employee that she "had no idea what to do in response to Porter’s conduct."
Police arrived at the scene shortly after the call was placed and Porter was arrested.
Police say that the 16-year-old was found in the bathroom in a panicked state, laboring to breathe after the assault.
It was determined that Porter was under the influence of drugs or alcohol on the evening of the assault.
The lawsuit against the management company is a result of inaction by the company after Porter allegedly sexually harassed two minor employees and the failure of Rundell to take action to stop the assault as it was occurring.
When Porter was convicted, sentencing Judge LaCost said "So you’re not going to be required to be registering [on the sex offender registry], which is a huge benefit for you. No employer likes to see that. But as I look at this, Mr. Porter, I see an OUIL in ’07, that’s what, fifteen years ago, you were twenty-one years old, and it’s been nonstop since then with three domestic violences, I’m fairly certain that alcohol was probably involved in those…"
"So, Mr. Porter, something’s got to change or you’re going to find yourself in prison or worse, I don’t know. What’s it going to take? Wiping out a whole family? This isn’t devastating enough to do this to two young girls that were not just young women but under your employ. You were their role model. You were their supervisor. You were the position of authority. You’ve ruined that. You’ve destroyed that trust. Own it. Wear it. Change it. That’s all I can say," Judge LaCost concluded.
This was the 16-year-old's first job and the assault resulted in weekly counseling and the use of anti-anxiety medication, court documents claim.
The suit asks the court for a trial by jury.
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