Defense verdict reversed because of improper evidence

One of the basic rules of trial evidence is that you can’t argue to a jury that a party is just a bad person who is dishonest and shouldn’t be believed. That form of “character assassination” is precluded precisely because it is such a powerful influencer. Here, an employer reached too deep into that bag of tricks, and the court of appeal took away a jury verdict in its favor.

Even mean girls suffer sexual harassment at work

Eunices Argueta began working at Menzies Aviation, a freight operations company in El Segundo, California, in 2008 when she was 18 years old. From about 2008 to 2014, she and Dzung Nguyen worked for Menzies near Los Angeles International Airport.

In October 2014, Worldwide Flight Services, Inc., acquired Menzies. Argueta was a lead agent in the import department, and her supervisor was Sonia Flores. Nguyen worked as their manager. In November 2016, Worldwide hired Maria Diaz as its first Director of Human Resources for its western region, which included Worldwide’s Los Angeles Airport location.

Subordinates’ complaint against Argueta

In November 2016 and January 2017, several employees Argueta supervised submitted written complaints to Worldwide about her, accusing her of bullying, harassment, retaliation, yelling, making threats, and other bad behavior, including discriminating against a pregnant subordinate. In January 2017, Diaz met with Argueta to discuss the complaints. Diaz testified she told Argueta that if her behavior didn’t improve, she would be terminated.