Doesn't sound as if Daniel Cantill was subjected to the same corporate workplace sexual harassment workshops they rest of us have been. According to a lawsuit filed Aug. 19 in Orange County Superior Court, the co-owner of American Weight Loss Centers told office manager Deanna Gibson that: he wanted to “make out” with her “pussy” since first buying the company; he would take care of her professionally if she took care of him sexually; she must bring sexual lubricant and pornography to work; she must send him naked photos of herself; she must “show me your tits”; she must blow, fuck and have anal sex with him lest she lose her job (she complied); and she was his personal “sex slave.”
When she first refused anal, Cantill is accused of saying, “Am I going to have to write you up?”
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And that was all before her morning coffee break! (Just kidding.)
Actually, the suit filed on Gibson's behalf by attorney Stan Grombchevsky of Spray Gould
& Bowers of Tustin describes serious and continuing sexual harassment from July 2008 through July 2011. Guess it really is tough to find a new job out there.
Cantill is named as a defendant along with his partner Dr. Garry Kijung Kim, whose weight-loss success story is shared on the online “About Us” page for the Santa Ana company that runs what are billed as FDA-approved weight loss centers in Brea, Tustin, Aliso Viejo, Fountain Valley and Pasadena. Kim is accused in the suit of knowing about Cantill's antics yet doing nothing to stop them–and of telling Gibson he had seen her bare “tits.”
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages and attorney fees, is actually filed against DKK Investments LLC dba [doing business as] American Weight Loss Centers. The Weekly has so far been unable to get a response from the company or plaintiffs.
The lawsuit states that on July 21, 2011, Gibson filed a complaint
against DKK Investments LLC with the California Department of Fair
Employment and Housing. Her separate civil lawsuit demands a jury trial and, if
she wins, she wants DKK to pay unspecified damages and pick up her
attorney fees. According to a stamp over the online version of the complaint, the case has been
assigned to Judge William M. Monroe at the Central Justice Center, Santa Ana
The suit's descriptions of the alleged abuse read like bad plots in hardcore porn shot on dank office sets with cheap desks and plastic plants. An approximate month-by-month breakdown of the allegations follows:
July 2008: Cantill kissed Gibson and said to keep it between themselves; he told her he was about to
let some workers go but that she could stay if she serviced him; he said
he wanted to “kiss” her “pussy” and “dreamed of making out with” her “pussy”
since he first purchased the business; he said she didn't have a choice, he
was going to fuck her after lunch; he asked for a lap dance; he asked her to
rub her breasts over his penis; he said “Show me your tits” after she refused to fuck
him; he forced her to expose her breasts; he sucked on them so hard they
hurt; he forced her to blow him; he ejaculated in her face; he warned her
“next time you are going to let me do whatever I want,” and that he
didn't want her to complain again.
August 2008: Kim and Cantill had
Gibson turn around to show them her pants and both said, “Very nice.” Cantill told Gibson to book lightly so he could “get action” with her; he did just that while
refusing to wear a condom, then threw $20 on the table and told her to “clean up”; he told her to meet him at a hotel, but when she
explained she couldn't because she was meeting her son's teacher, he told
her she had “better be back on time”; he told her to send him naked photos
and when she said she did not have any, he twice ordered her to go into
the bathroom and send him shots, ordering her to “let me see that pussy
spread open right now”; he coerced her to go to a hotel with him to drink,
have sex and give him oral.
September 2008: Cantill called Gibson a
“business opportunity” and said she'd have to service him sexually evey
week thereafter to keep her job.
October 2008: Cantill told Gibson Wednesdays were now sex days and forced her to keep lube and porn at work; he told her to send him naked photos again, and she complied; he tracked her menstrual cycle so he'd know
when she was lying about not being able to have sex due to her period.
November 2008: When Gibson's period was late, Cantill told her that her job on her day off was to go get birth control.
April 2009: When Gibson refused to have sex with Cantill, he told her she'd
better make it up to him; they wound up having sex in the lunch area,
where he told her of other women he was having sex with.
June
2009: A co-worker told Gibson she knew the office manager was having sex with Cantill; he
began kissing Gibson in front of the same co-worker, who along with Gibson was forced to watch porn with their boss.
July 2009: Cantill told Gibson he
wanted to have anal sex with her, and when she refused, he said, “Am I
going to have to write you up?” He forced anal on her, and when she said she
was in pain, he said, “Don't tell me what to do,” “I'm taking your pussy” and “I don't want to hear you complain.”
March 2010: Cantill told Gibson she was his personal “sex slave”; he told her to pretend she liked him by sending him personal greetings such as “good morning” and “miss you”; when an anonymous email circulated stating that employees knew what Cantill and Gibson were doing, Cantill told Kim he would stop–but Cantill also directed Gibson to send him naked photos; he continued to slap her butt, kiss her, make her sit on his lap, take her for long rides in his car and demand oral from her; he told her to lie to Kim about being in the office.
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March 2011: Cantill again increased pressure on Gibson to fuck him; he said he gave her a job and cared for her and her children; he pushed her head down and forced her to blow him; he threw $30 on the table for her; her made her change the color of her fingernails. Gibson claimed about then she started experiencing headaches, anxiety, blurred vision, loss of sleep and feelings like she was going to have panic attacks–all the time.
April 2011: Cantill ordered Gibson to fuck him daily; they would have sex sessions for hours at a time; he made her thank him for the sex; he told her he would keep fucking her after she said she was dizzy and feeling ill. During this time, Gibson's headaches increased in frequency, and her feelings of pending panic attacks jumped to six to 10 times daily.
April 15, 2011: Suffering from dizziness, blurred vision and panic attacks, Gibson went to an emergency room.
May 2011: Gibson's doctor put her on medical leave for neck pain, migraine headaches and partial loss of vision, which her attorney blames on the stress Cantill caused.
June 2011: Cantill asked Gibson if he caused her stress, and when she said he did, he replied it must be her “shitty, fucked-up life”; he said he helped her, she would not have a job were it not for him and that she should thank him; Kim showed Gibson a photo of a naked woman, remarked that Gibson's “tits” were bigger and conceded he'd seen her naked breasts before.
July 2011: After Gibson said she did not feel comfortable having sex with Cantill anymore, he told her to look for another job; after refusing another demand for sex, Cantill came to the office and cried to Gibson, put his arm around her, yelled at her, offered her a raise, told her he loved her, told her she would not lose her job if she just hung out with him and asked for a hug.
July 12, 2011: Gibson was told by a co-worker that the locks were changed at her American Weight Loss Centers office building.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.