ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio – The Justice Department announced Thursday that the owners and operators of rental properties in and around Athens County, Ohio have agreed to pay $480,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that their former rental manager, Joseph Earl Lucas, sexually harassed female tenants and prospective tenants of rental properties for almost twenty years, in violation of the Fair Housing Act.
“No one should have to endure sexual harassment to keep a roof over his or her head,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This settlement underscores the Justice Department’s commitment to holding landlords and housing providers accountable for illegal harassment of their tenants.”
“The provision of housing should not be conditioned on sexual favors or otherwise involve sexual harassment,” said U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II for the Southern District of Ohio. “My Office will continue to enforce the Fair Housing Act against landlords and property managers who engage in such exploitive conduct.”
“The defendants severe abuse of power victimized our most vulnerable community members for almost twenty years and stripped them of their basic right to safety and dignity,” said Special Agent in Charge Shawn Rice of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG). “Sexual misconduct is never a misunderstanding of boundaries. It is coercion and it is violence disguised as authority. HUD OIG will continue to work with the US Attorney’s Office to hold housing providers accountable for this type of horrible conduct.”
The department’s lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in August 2023, alleged that, from at least 2004 until at least 2023, Lucas, a former resident of Amesville, Ohio, subjected female tenants and applicants to severe and pervasive sexual harassment. In addition to Lucas, the lawsuit named as Defendants Jacob and Emily Bush, and Joie and Jeremy Carr, who held ownership interests in properties managed by Lucas and retained him to manage the properties on their behalf. Jacob Bush and Joie Carr are Lucas’ grandchildren. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General participated in the investigation that resulted in the department’s lawsuit.
Under the settlement, the Bushes and Carrs will pay a total of $470,000 to women harmed by Lucas’ harassment and a $10,000 civil penalty to the United States. The agreement also:
- prohibits the Bushes and Carrs from retaining or otherwise permitting Lucas to manage their rental properties;
- requires the Bushes and Carrs to adopt policies and procedures to prevent future sexual harassment at their properties; and
- requires the Bushes and the Carrs to attend training on the requirements of the Fair Housing Act, including its prohibition on sexual harassment.
If you are a victim of sexual harassment by a landlord or property manager or have suffered other forms of housing discrimination, call the Justice Department’s Housing Discrimination Tip Line at 1-800-896-7743, email the Justice Department at fairhousing@usdoj.gov, or submit a report online. More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at www.justice.gov/crt.
This settlement is part of the Justice Department’s Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative, led by the Civil Rights Division, in coordination with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country. The initiative, which the Department launched in October 2017, seeks to address and raise awareness about sexual harassment by landlords, property managers, maintenance workers, loan officers and other people who have control over housing. Since launching the initiative, the department has filed 52 lawsuits alleging sexual harassment in housing and recovered nearly $16.6 million for victims of such harassment.
