Firefighter Settles with City of Houston in Revenge Porn Case
HOUSTON – Houston City Council today approved an $850,000 settlement with a female firefighter whose supervisor obtained an intimate video made for her husband and secretly watched it for years.
The vote settled the city’s portion of the litigation filed by former Houston Fire Department Capt. Melinda Abbt. In November 2023, a jury awarded her $250,000 in her lawsuit against her former supervisor John Barrientes. And in 2022, in an appeal of an early ruling in her case, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a hostile work environment summary judgment order against her and set two new precedents making hostile work environment cases easier to file.
Evidence in the 2023 trial showed Mr. Barrientes obtained an intimate video that Ms. Abbt made for her husband. He showed it to at least one other Houston firefighter and later sent him a copy. The two male firefighters secretly watched the video repeatedly for years. She did not find out for years that they had somehow obtained the video from her private computer, and she never learned who else in the fire department saw it.
On finally learning about their access to the video, she understandably was distraught and needed unpaid leave and counseling, especially when the city refused to promise she would not have to work next to the men in the future. Ms. Abbt was never able to work as a firefighter again.
“I’m happy the city is finally settling this matter. But I also want to be sure the administration is better prepared to handle complaints in the future. Hard working employees should have protections from hostile work environments and their concerns should be addressed, not ignored,” Ms. Abbt said of the city council action.
“Melinda’s case changed sexual harassment law in the 5th Circuit for the better and hopefully will improve the way the City of Houston handles these cases in the future, too,” said lead lawyer Joe Ahmad, a co-founder of the AZA law firm.
“This should never have happened, and it was handled badly by the fire department and the city at the time. The city re-victimized her by being blasé. It failed to investigate, leaders said they didn’t do sexual harassment cases, they didn't think people viewing the video mattered, and they refused to work with her to find a more suitable place to work,” Mr. Ahmad said.
AZA partner Jordan Warshauer, who handled the case with Mr. Ahmad, said the current fire department or mayor are not to blame for all this. “It is good to see the city wants to finally handle it the right way,” Ms. Warshauer said. AZA associate Karina Sanchez-Peralta also worked on this case.
AZA partner Kelsi Stayart White successfully handled Ms. Abbt’s appeal. The new law made by Ms. Abbt’s case in 2022 came when the appellate court found the firefighter did not need to experience harassment in real time for it to be actionable. According to the ruling, the victim still has a claim if she finds out later about what happened behind her back. This was the first time the court had ruled on that issue.
The appellate panel also ruled that the City of Houston can be liable if a workplace harassment report goes up the chain of command but stops because a supervisor who was a recipient of the notice is also a participant in the harassment. This was also the first time the court had ruled on that issue.
The city’s case is Melinda Abbt v. City of Houston in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, case no. 4:19-CV-01353.