'I Just Want Awareness': Google Employee Sues Company Over Alleged Racial, Sexual Abuse at Venice Campus

Sarah Favot

Favot is an award-winning journalist and adjunct instructor at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She previously was an investigative and data reporter at national education news site The 74 and local news site LA School Report. She's also worked at the Los Angeles Daily News. She was a Livingston Award finalist in 2011 and holds a Master's degree in journalism from Boston University and BA from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

'I Just Want Awareness': Google Employee Sues Company Over Alleged Racial, Sexual Abuse at Venice Campus

A security guard who worked at Google's Venice campus has sued the company, saying it did not adequately respond to his complaints that he was sexually harassed and physically assaulted by a supervisor because of his race and sexual orientation.


David Brown, who is Black and gay, alleged his supervisor called him racial and gay epithets, and physically abused him by "grabbing him on the buttocks, kicking him in the groin, throwing him through a window head first and brutally grabbing his nipples."

Brown is employed by both Google and security company Allied Universal, according to the lawsuit filed Sept. 29 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages for the alleged abuse which began in 2012, continued at Google in 2014 and ended when he went on leave last year.

The lawsuit comes in the wake of a year of racial reckoning, during which many major tech companies, including Google, announced efforts to make more inclusive workplaces for Black workers. Google employees have drawn attention to the issue of workplace sexual harassment at the tech giant .About 20,000 Google employees and contractors staged a walkout in November, 2018. In April, more than 2,000 workers signed an open letter, saying the problems haven't been adequately addressed.

"Google, basically, they give lip service to wanting to deter discrimination and harassment, but here, when they had the opportunity to do the right thing, they struck out," V. James DeSimone, Brown's attorney, said in an interview.

A screenshot of the conversation between Allied/Google employees.

The lawsuit also points to an exchange of text messages between Brown's supervisor, Henry Linares, and Google's senior manager for global community operations, Rus Rossini, in which Rossini and Linares allegedly mocked Brown's sexual orientation.

"Strip searches for all," Rossini texted, according to the lawsuit. To which, Linares responded, "David is going to love that." Rossini wrote, "Tell David to bend over," and Linares replied, "hahah I'll tell him you said Hellooo."

The lawsuit alleged Rossini "participated in the discrimination and sexual harassment and took no corrective action."

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

An Allied spokeswoman sent a statement: "Allied Universal is dedicated to fostering a workplace that is free from discrimination. We are committed to treating all people fairly, protecting safety and privacy and upholding ethical business practices at all times. We take seriously all claims against the company but are unable to comment on pending litigation."

Brown's supervisor, Linares, was fired for reasons unrelated to this complaint, according to the lawsuit. A person named Henry L. who worked at Allied through July 2021 did not respond to a LinkedIn message requesting comment.

In an emotional interview, Brown said he lived in fear of being killed because of the threats Linares made. He didn't tell anyone, including his partner, about the abuse for years.

"It took courage that I didn't even think that I had to voice it to my partner, to voice it to my other coworkers who I told what was going on," Brown said. "It took a lot out of me, but I didn't want to be selfish. I said, 'what if someone else is going through what I'm going through and they're scared like I was for all those years to tell anyone'."

The alleged verbal and physical abuse began in 2012 when Brown and Linares worked at the Santa Monica Mall. Two weeks after Brown filed a complaint, he was moved to Google's Venice campus.

Brown was relieved and ready for a fresh start, but a year later Linares was transferred to Google.

"I thought it would be completely different, especially because I did what I had to do as far as reporting it. I just thought that I would be more protected," Brown said of his time at Google.

"The companies have an obligation to keep the workplace safe and to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment from occurring and these companies are being called out on that publicly," DeSimone said. "In terms of this lawsuit, we hope to be part of this movement across the country that is holding the companies accountable for the harassment that unfortunately still is prevalent in many workplaces especially, it appears, tech companies."

On Monday, a jury ordered Tesla to pay nearly $137 million in damages to an employee who was exposed to racist abuse, discrimmination and harassment at the company's factory in Fremont.

Brown said he filed the lawsuit so that others don't feel like they have to be silenced.

"I want someone else who's going through something similar, or maybe the same thing, to know it's OK to tell," he said. "I wish I just had the courage and I blame myself so much that I didn't say anything sooner. I just want justice. I just want awareness. That's all I want."

A Feb. 1 hearing is scheduled in the case.

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The Impact of Authentic Storytelling. LA Latino/a Founders and Funders Tell All

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

The Impact of Authentic Storytelling. LA Latino/a Founders and Funders Tell All
Decerry Donato

As one of the most diverse cities in the world, Los Angeles is home to almost 5 million people who identify as Hispanic or Latinx. Yet, many feel they still lack representation in the city’s tech space.

“I can safely say that last year’s LA tech week hosted all of the events on the west side, and very few were focused on telling Latino and Latina entrepreneurial stories,” said Valeria Martinez, investor at VamosVentures. “We wanted to change that this year.”

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LA Tech Week Day 3: Social Highlights
Evan Xie

L.A. Tech Week has brought venture capitalists, founders and entrepreneurs from around the world to the California coast. With so many tech nerds in one place, it's easy to laugh, joke and reminisce about the future of tech in SoCal.

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LA Tech Week: Female Founders Provide Insights Into Their Startup Journeys

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech Week: Female Founders Provide Insights Into Their Startup Journeys
Decerry Donato

Women remain a minority among startup founders. According to Pitchbook, even though women-led startups in the United States received a record $20.8 billion in funding during the first half of 2022, U.S. companies with one or more female founders received less than 20% of total venture funding in 2022. U.S. companies solely led by female founders received less than 2% of the total funding.

The panel, titled Female Founders: Planning, Pivoting, Profiting, was moderated by NYU law professor Shivani Honwad and featured Anjali Kundra, co-founder of bar inventory software Partender; Montré Moore, co-founder of the Black-owned beauty startup AMP Beauty LA; Mia Pokriefka, co-founder and CEO of the interactive social media tool Huxly; and Sunny Wu, founder and CEO of fashion company LE ORA.

The panelists shared their advice and insights on starting and growing a business as a woman. They all acknowledged feeling pressure to not appear weak among peers, especially as a female founder. But this added weight only causes more stress that may lead to burnout.

“The mental health aspect of being a founder should not be overshadowed,” said Kundra, who realized this during the early stages of building her company with her brother..

Growing up in Silicon Valley, Kundra was surrounded by the startup culture where, “everyone is crushing it!” But she said that no one really opened up about the challenges of starting your own company. .

“Once you grow up as a founder in that environment, it's pretty toxic,” Kundra said. “I felt like I really wanted to be open and be able to go to our investors and tell them about challenges because businesses go up and down, markets go up and down and no company is perfect.”

Honwad, who advocates for women’s rights, emphasized the value of aligning yourself with people with similar values in the tech ecosystem. “[Those people] can make your life better not just from an investment and money standpoint, but also a personal standpoint, because life happens,” she said.

Moore, who unexpectedly lost one of her co-founders at AMP Beauty, said that entrepreneurs “really have to learn how to adapt to [their] circumstances.”

“She was young, healthy, vibrant and we've been sorority sisters and friends over the past decade,” she said about her co-founder Phyllicia Phillips, who passed away in February. “So it was just one of those moments where you have to take a pause.”

Moore said this experience forced her to ask for help, which many founders hesitate to do. She encouraged the audience to try and share their issues out loud with their teams because there are always people who will offer help. When Moore shared her concerns with her investors, they jumped in to support her in ways she didn’t think was possible.

Kundra said that while it is important to have a support group and listen to mentors, it is very important for entrepreneurs to follow their own thinking and pick and choose what they want to implement within their strategy. “At the end of the day, you really have to own your own decisions,” she said.

Kundra also said that while it is easy to turn to your colleagues and competitors and do what they are doing, you shouldn’t always follow them because every business is different.

“When I was in the heat of it, I kind of became [a part of] this echo chamber and that was really challenging for us,” Kundra added, “but we were able to move beyond it and figure out what worked for us [as a company] and we're still on a journey. You're always going to be figuring it out, so just know you're not alone.”

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