Flight Attendant Drops Sexual Harassment Suit Against Michigan Billionaire
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A flight attendant who claimed billionaire developer A. Alfred Taubman sexually harassed her has dropped her lawsuit after just two weeks.
Nicole Rock withdrew her case Friday in Detroit federal court. There was no explanation in the one-sentence statement filed by attorney Tom Warnicke. An email seeking comment was not immediately returned Monday.
Rock claimed in her suit that, while working for six years for Taubman, she was forced to endure "horrific acts" in a pattern of abuse.
Rock said Taubman repeatedly groped her private parts against her will, forcibly kissed her, ripped her clothing and attempted to perform oral sex on her while she worked on his private plane. He also, she said, asked intimate questions about her sex life. (More here).
The lawsuit had sought $29 million.
A spokesman the 88-year-old Taubman said the allegations are untrue.
Rock said the complained repeatedly to her supervisor and to Taubman himself, but nothing was done about it. She was granted short-term leave due to stress, anxiety and depression she said was caused by the ordeal.
Rock said she was eventually left with no choice but to resign in early 2011.
Taubman in 2002 he served a 10-month prison sentence in a price-fixing case involving Sotheby's auction house.
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