Fort Worth woman’s sexual assault claims against American Airlines to go to trial
A Fort Worth flight attendant who says she was sexually assaulted by a celebrity chef and blackballed by American Airlines will have the chance to tell her story before a Tarrant County jury, a judge ruled Monday.
Kimberly Goesling, 52, filed a lawsuit against celebrity chef Mark Sargeant and American Airlines in January 2020. In an interview with the Star-Telegram, Goesling said American Airlines knew Sargeant had a history of allegations of inappropriate sexual relationships and alcohol abuse, but the airline hired him anyway.
During a business trip in Germany in January 2018, Goesling said, Sargeant forced his way into her hotel room at 3:30 a.m. and sexually assaulted her. Goesling, who at the time had worked with American Airlines for 30 years and was a top employee, reported the assault to the company. In response, the airline removed her from her top position and retaliated against her, according to the lawsuit. She also said two high-ranking American Airlines managers encouraged Sargeant to go to her hotel room and provided him with her room number.
American Airlines said after Goesling reported the assault, it conducted an investigation and severed business ties with Sargeant. In court documents, the company said there is no evidence a manager gave Sargeant Goesling’s room number, and the airline is not responsible for Sargeant’s alleged actions.
In January, Goesling filed a lawsuit in the 342nd Judicial District Court. American Airlines filed a motion for summary judgment in September, writing that Goesling was suing the airline over “unforeseeable criminal acts allegedly committed by an intoxicated contractor after working-hours in her hotel room.”
Goesling’s attorneys said the airline was trying to avoid a jury trial. On Monday, Tarrant County Judge Kimberly Fitzpatrick rejected the airline’s motion. The case is set to be heard before a jury in the 342nd Judicial District Court on Jan. 24.
“Our belief has always been that when a jury in Fort Worth hears this case and they hear what happened to my client — and how American ignored her and then retaliated against her — they will be appalled,” said attorney Robert Miller of Miller Bryant LLP in Dallas, who represents Goesling. “All we have ever wanted is a chance to tell our story to a jury and now we have that chance.”
‘Sweep it under the carpet’
Goesling’s lawsuit includes claims of sexual assault, conspiracy and retaliation. She said her story represents a company-wide problem of sexual harassment and retaliation at American Airlines. In an interview with the Star-Telegram in June, Goesling and her attorney said a significant number of other women had come forward to say they, too, were the victims of a sweep-it-under-the-rug culture at American Airlines.
“It’s almost as if, I feel, they sweep it under the carpet with hopes that the individual can’t fight the fight,” Goesling said in the previous Star-Telegram interview. “Or somehow you should be thankful you have a job. And you’ll get over it.”
In response to the allegations surrounding Goesling’s case, American Airlines said in a statement that flight attendants are trained to address a wide range of issues that may arise in flight and “we want our team members to feel empowered and encouraged to report and address sexual harassment and misconduct.”
The airline industry as a whole has a problem with reporting and handling sexual misconduct, according to a report published in March 2020 by the National In-Flight Sexual Misconduct Task Force. The task force was created in 2018 due to a rise in sexual misconduct incidents on planes.
After Goesling talked publicly about her story in the Facebook group The MeToo Truth about American Airlines, two former flight attendants wrote and signed affidavits with allegations of sexual assault within American Airlines. One woman wrote in an affidavit, which was shared with the Star-Telegram, that a captain tried to rape her during a layover in 1988. Like Goesling, the woman said management discouraged her from filing an official report. An official with the Chief Pilots office told the woman if she went through with the complaint, pilots would not want to fly with her and she would be blackballed, according to her affidavit.
