“Inexcusable and illegal.” Employees and customers of a secondhand store in eastern Washington sexually harassed

A nonprofit that operated a thrift store to support veterans in Kennewick was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 million to women the group’s founder sexually harassed at the group’s stores in Tri-Cities and Wenatchee.

Thelbert “Thad” Lawson Jr. was accused of sexually harassing female employees, volunteers and customers at the two stores. Among other things, he subjected female employees to unwanted touching, asked them to show their bodies to him, asked questions about their sex lives and demanded sexual favors.

He was the founder and executive director of Operation Veterans Assistance & Humanitarian Aid, which owned and operated the large Kennewick Veterans Thrift Store in the same complex as Lowe’s Home Improvement on Columbia Center Boulevard.

The store opened in spring 2021 and closed in November of the following year. The Wenatchee-based nonprofit also operated a thrift store there for nearly a decade before closing in summer 2023.

“What happened at OVAHA is abhorrent, inexcusable and illegal,” said Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson. His office filed the lawsuit against the organization and Lawson in Chelan County Superior Court in February 2022.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, a jury concluded Friday that Lawson’s repeated and widespread sexual harassment of co-workers and the public, as well as his retaliation against female employees, violated Washington state anti-discrimination law.

Twelve women will receive $1.45 million in damages, and the workers will receive about $17,300 in back wages.

Ferguson plans to next file a motion asking the court to prevent Lawson from supervising or harassing women in the future and to order the defendants to reimburse the state for costs and fees associated with filing the lawsuit.

Five of the people Lawson harassed were shoppers or volunteers at the store.

In 2017, a woman who was not an employee obtained a restraining order against Lawson after he locked her in a basement room at the Wenatchee store and forced her to run past him to escape, according to the attorney general’s office.

In July 2021, a jury found Lawson guilty of assault for rubbing his body against another woman, who was not an employee of the store, which the attorney general’s office said he captured in the office of the nonprofit’s Wenatchee store.

Sexual harassment

The nonprofit posted Lawson’s bail pending appeal, which allowed him to stay out of jail after his conviction and continue working at the thrift stores, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Lawson lost the appeal and spent 75 days in jail.

The other seven women Lawson harassed were co-workers, including one who Lawson believed had contacted a lawyer. He began asking other co-workers if there were grounds to fire her and told her she would no longer be included on the work schedule, the attorney general said.

He also said he was “untouchable” because he knew police officers and judges.

According to court documents, he forced several employees to quit or had employees quit because working conditions were unbearable. He is also accused of retaliating by reassigning work hours, assigning more difficult tasks and not paying overtime to women who objected to his sexual harassment.

Some women reported Lawson’s sexual misconduct to the chair of the nonprofit’s board of directors, as well as branch managers and supervisors, but the nonprofit did not take appropriate steps to investigate the incident or stop Lawson from doing so, court documents show.

According to the Attorney General, the board of the nonprofit organization is made up of friends and family members of Lawson.

Despite Lawson’s criminal conviction and repeated complaints from employees, the nonprofit continued to allow Lawson to work in its thrift stores, the state said.

To report workplace discrimination, contact the Attorney General’s Office at [email protected].