REUTERS – The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on Friday that employers in the state can legally fire workers they find too attractive.
In a unanimous decision, the court held that a dentist did not violate the state’s civil rights act when he terminated a female dental assistant whom his wife considered a threat to their marriage.
The dental assistant, Melissa Nelson, who worked for dentist James Knight for more than 10 years and had never flirted with him, according to the testimony of both parties, sued, saying she would not have been fired if she were a man.
At trial, Knight testified he had complained to Nelson on several occasions that her clothing was too tight, revealing and “distracting.”
But sometime in 2009, he also began exchanging text messages with Nelson. Most of these were work-related and harmless, according to testimony. But others were more suggestive, including one in which Knight asked Nelson how often she had an orgasm. She never answered the text.
In late 2009, Knight’s wife found out about the text exchanges and demanded her husband terminate the dental assistant because “she was a big threat to our marriage.”
In early 2010, he fired her, saying their relationship had become a detriment to his family.
Nelson sued, saying that she had done nothing wrong, that she considered Knight a friend and father figure, and that she would not have been terminated but for her gender.
Knight argued that Nelson was terminated not because of her gender – all the employees of his practice are women – but because of the way their relationship had developed and the threat it posed to his marriage.
The seven justices, all men, said the basic question presented by the case was “whether an employee who has not engaged in flirtatious conduct may be lawfully terminated simply because the boss views the employee as an irresistible attraction.”
The high court ruled that bosses can fire workers they find too attractive and that such actions do not amount to unlawful discrimination.
The case was Melissa Nelson v. James H. Knight DDS, PC and James Knight. (Reporting by James B. Kelleher in Chicago; Editing by Eric Beech)
Fugitive software guru John McAfee, 67, seeks ‘asylum’ in Guatemala
TECH guru John McAfee has been tracked down in Guatemala after he sent a photo to Vice magazine that gave away his location.
The American anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee is wanted for questioning over the murder of his neighbour last month in Belize.
“It was not easy to exit Belize and required many supporters in many countries,” 67-year-old McAfee, who has been on the run for more than three weeks, since US expat Gregory Faull’s November 11 murder, wrote on his blog.
“I am in Guatemala and will be meeting with Guatemalan officials this morning. If all goes well I will do a press conference tomorrow (Wednesday),” wrote the fugitive, believed to be traveling with his girlfriend Sam, 20.
Mr.McAfee, who maintains his innocence, has been posting regularly on his blog, whoismcafee.com, leaving a confusing trail for the public and the Belizean authorities to follow.
Before apparently fleeing south into Guatemala, he put out a false report saying he had been captured near the northern Mexican border and claimed to have sent a “double” with a North Korean passport to Mexico as another decoy.
Internet users tracked a photo from a magazine on Monday to Guatemala, but Mr McAfee initially claimed to have encrypted it to throw police off the scent.
“I apologise for all of the misdirections over the past few days,” Mr McAfee, who says he is also travelling with two reporters from Vice magazine, wrote in Tuesday’s post.
“Yesterday was chaotic due to the accidental release of my exact co-ordinates by an unseasoned technician at Vice headquarters,” he said.
“We made it to safety in spite of this handicap. I had to cancel numerous interviews with the press yesterday because of this and I apologise to all of those affected.”
Police say Faull, 52, was discovered by his housekeeper with a 9-mm slug in his head lying in a pool of his own blood.
Prior to his murder, Faull had led neighbours in writing a letter to the mayor complaining that Mr McAfee’s “vicious” dogs and aggressive security guards were scaring tourists and residents alike.
Mr.McAfee shot dead four of his dogs before fleeing, claiming they had been poisoned, possibly by Faull.
Police said the dogs were exhumed last week and ballistics experts are seeing if the slugs match up with the one found in Faull’s head.
A successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur who cashed out to live the life of an adventure seeker, Mr McAfee amassed huge wealth from the antivirus software that bears his name.
He decamped to Belize in 2009 after losing an estimated $US96 million ($A92 million) of his $US100 million fortune due to bad investments and the financial crisis.
According to profiles in The New York Times and tech magazine Wired, his lifestyle became increasingly extreme as he descended into a drug-fuelled existence centered on young prostitutes. http://www.whatsonsanya.com/news-24780-fugitive-software-guru-john-mcafee-67-seeks-asylum-in-guatemala.html http://www.news.com.au/world/tech-blunder-reveals-john-mcafee-is-in-guatemala/story-fndir2ev-1226530127973
