Homemaker's Furniture Sale's Manager  - Sexual Harassment Case Deposition Testimony

1013 Butterfield Rd
Downers Grove, Illinois

Deposition Video

16 March 2004, 10:12 - 11:14

Homemakers Furniture Store Sale's Manager - Patrick Paul - Flash & wmv Video - 1hr 

  Patrick Paul gives his first ever deposition.

 Patrick worked for Homemaker’s Furniture for 2 ½ years and 2 years at Home Life.  He worked for Sears Furniture Sales for 27 years prior to those positions.

 Patrick received about 8 hours of Sexual Harassment training at Home Life and passed a quiz on the class contents.

 Patrick was hired as Sales Manager at the Downer’s Grove Homemaker’s store.  Store Manager, Mary Pryor introduced Patrick to the UPS sales system where the store sales people would have a greeting they’d meet the customers with as they enter the store.

 There was a general procedure handbook for the store which included information on handling Sexual Harassment.

 The store had a Rhodes University Manual or Rhodes Bible that documented procedures for use by managers.

 Patrick’s first personnel issue involvement at Downer’s Grove involved Karyn Kallenborn’s case.  He later handled several territorial sales issues and other personnel conflicts on a weekly basis.

Patrick first learned about Kayrn complaining about Mario Cordero while he was in Mary Pryor’s office. Karyn came in the office in a state of desperation and told Mary something must be done with Mario and that Mario wouldn’t leave her alone.  Patrick’s first reaction was like “Whoa. Wow, this is a shame.”  He felt the situation where an employee would be driven to this state where she was upset by something Mario had said or done was a shame.

 Patrick’s first thought was it was a serious problem and they needed to get to the bottom of the issue right away.  Patrick tried to console Karyn and Mary had 2 ladies escort her home to reliever her adamant situational fear.

 Later that day, Mary and Patrick discussed talking with Mario to try to find if Karyn’s accusations had any validity.  They both quickly agreed they needed to get Mario in to address the matter.

 Within the next couple days, Mary called Mario in the office and confronted him with what Karyn said of him harassing her.  Patrick describes Mario getting agitated with the accusation and demonstrates how he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and played a message Karyn left him.

 The “teasing, cutesy” fashioned message Karyn left Mario made it difficult for Patrick to judge who was right and who was wrong.  He wanted to get to the bottom of the disturbing issue that wasn’t clear.

 On 10^th September 2001 , Mary and Patrick met and appraised Mark Samara (Division Manager) and Dave Berger (District Operations Manager) of the “Red Flag” situation. Mark suggested they interview anyone who was present when the issue took place.  He said if they were a witness to any impropriety, they should document it and sign it.