Gilardi v. Schroeder

• Citation: 672 F. Supp. 1043
• Decision Date: 19 September 1986
• Docket Number: No. 83 C 5672.,83 C 5672.
• Parties: Cynthia GILARDI, Plaintiff, v. Gary SCHROEDER d/b/a Gary Schroeder Trucking, Defendant.
• Court: United States District Courts. 7th Circuit. United States District Court (Northern District of Illinois)

672 F. Supp. 1043

Cynthia GILARDI, Plaintiff, v. Gary SCHROEDER d/b/a Gary Schroeder Trucking, Defendant.

No. 83 C 5672.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, E.D.

September 19, 1986.

Ellen G. Robinson, Burke & Smith, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.

Dann Duff, Addison, Ill., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM ORDER

PRENTICE H. MARSHALL, District Judge.

Plaintiff, Cynthia Gilardi, and her husband, Leonard, began working for defendant, Gary Schroeder, in January 1980 as a team of cross-country truck drivers. Their work took them from Chicago, where Schroeder's depot is situated, to the West Coast and back. Schroeder hired other couples as drivers.

Schroeder was a sexaholic. He once boasted to an employee that he had never seen a woman he wouldn't have intercourse with. His pad of daily reminder notepads entitled "Things to Do Today" was "illustrated" with a sketch of a man and woman engaged in intercourse. He used these notepads to give instructions to his female employees. He spoke to his female employees about sexual intercourse, group sex, and sexual orgies; commented on their breasts; asked them if they were wearing brassieres; and patted them on the buttocks. One of his employees, Edward St. Clair, was the brother of Schroeder's wife, Carol. In May 1982, St. Clair gave an affidavit to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in which he stated, "I was constantly asked by Schroeder to participate in group sex with himself and his wife, my sister."¹

While Cynthia Gilardi found Schroeder's behavior offensive, she remained on her job because it was well-paying; she worked with her husband; and because of the nature of their work, she was seldom in the office.

In July 1981, Cynthia and Leonard Gilardi separated. There is a whisper in the record that this was occasioned by a relationship which was developing between Cynthia and Edward St. Clair. But there is no credible testimony which supports that. What the evidence does show is that one day Leonard evicted Cynthia from the cab of their tractor and threw her personal effects out after her.² This occurred at the end of a truck trip in the parking lot at Schroeder's depot, and Schroeder observed it.

Cynthia and Leonard had literally lived in the cab of the tractor. She was now homeless. Schroeder, whose wife was in Arizona visiting a friend, invited Cynthia to stay at his house. She did so with St. Clair.

Schroeder told his wife about this arrangement and she was displeased with it. Nonetheless, Cynthia and St. Clair remained in Schroeder's home for two or three weeks, during which time Schroeder went to Arizona and returned with his wife. At that point, Cynthia and St. Clair moved into a mobile home which was available to St. Clair. While St. Clair testified at the trial that on one occasion during his and Cynthia's stay with Schroeder he observed Cynthia and Schroeder embracing, Schroeder testified before the EEOC that he never touched Cynthia until the night in question, to which we will turn our attention momentarily.

At this point in her life, Cynthia was essentially unemployed because she no longer had a truck to drive or a partner to drive with. Schroeder offered her a job in the office working on trip kits, i.e., itinerary, expense vouchers, computation of commission for the drivers, etc. Once she moved into the office, Schroeder's sexual interest in her intensified. He repeatedly brought up the subjects of intercourse, group sex, and sexual orgies. He remarked about her breasts, inquired whether she was wearing a brassiere, patted her buttocks, and on one occasion put his hand between her thighs. She rebuffed him. She told him that she did not want to engage in that type of activity with her employer. When asked during the trial why she stayed on the job, her response was understandable and credible: She was alone, the job paid $300 a week (with an intimation of $500 a week) — she had little economic choice.

After Gary and Carol Schroeder returned from Arizona, they engaged Cynthia in some social activity, which involved Patti and Walter Gwara, who were also husband and wife drivers for Schroeder. At the instance of either Gary Schroeder or Patti Gwara, the five (and perhaps six) — Gary and Carol Schroeder, Cynthia Gilardi, Patti and Walter Gwara and perhaps Edward St. Clair — gathered in the Schroeder's living room and discussed group sex and articles dealing with "kinky" sexual activity appearing in Forum magazine. And on one occasion, at Gary Schroeder's suggestion (indeed insistence, according to Cynthia), the group played strip poker in which everyone disrobed entirely, except Gary, who was left in his shorts.

There is evidence that concurrently with these activities, various of the persons at Schroeder's business were using drugs "recreationally." Cynthia testified that Gary used Quaaludes and cocaine; Gary testified that Cynthia used cocaine, marijuana and Quaaludes. Gary invoked the privilege against self-incrimination when asked about his own activities; another office worker testified that Cynthia had told her (the coworker) that Cynthia used Quaaludes. Cynthia testified that Gary Schroeder provided her with Quaaludes, which she took once or twice to help her sleep.

On Saturday, September 12, 1981, Gary and Carol Schroeder invited Cynthia Gilardi to accompany them to an open house and a party. She did. After the party, the three returned by automobile to the mobile home where Cynthia was living. They sat outside and talked. Cynthia was very talkative. Instead of separating, the three of them went to the Schroeder home where they visited briefly in the living room. Carol Schroeder went to bed leaving Cynthia and Gary Schroeder in the living room.

When he appeared before the EEOC, Gary Schroeder admitted that he gave Cynthia Gilardi three Quaaludes, which she ingested.³ She passed out. While she was in a stupor, Gary Schroeder had sexual intercourse with her, performed cunnilingus on her, and, according to his testimony, she performed fellatio on him. During a brief period of consciousness, she became aware that he was performing cunnilingus on her. She tried to push him off. He took her upstairs to bed, placed her in bed with his wife, and he then got in bed with the two of them. There is no evidence from which it could be inferred that Cynthia Gilardi consented to, encouraged or provoked Schroeder's conduct.

Carol Schroeder awakened early the following morning to discover her husband and Cynthia in bed with her. She screamed at her husband and pummeled him. The two of them got out of bed and went downstairs where Carol continued berating Gary. Cynthia remained unconscious until noon. She was oblivious to the encounter between Carol and Gary.

Cynthia regained consciousness around noon. Gary took her to her mobile home.⁴ Her friend, Edward St. Clair, was on the road. He reached her by phone and she told him what had occurred. He called Gary Schroeder, who told St. Clair that he had drugged Cynthia, had intercourse and cunnilingus with her, and that he had planned it that way.

Carol Schroeder insisted that Gary fire Cynthia. The following day, September 14, Cynthia reported for work. She spoke to Carol by phone and Carol told her that she was fired. She talked to Gary and Gary suggested that she make herself inconspicuous. She had a confrontation with Carol in a trailer in the parking lot at Schroeder's depot, which was witnessed by Schroeder's niece, Nadine Schroeder Leske. Carol Schroeder accused Cynthia of having intercourse with Gary and getting naked in their bed. She told Cynthia to get out of their lives. Cynthia responded that all she had done was have intercourse with him and that she needed the job. Carol persisted in her insistence that Gary fire Cynthia. On Wednesday or Thursday of that week he did so. He told Cynthia that she shouldn't come to work and that she could apply for unemployment compensation.

Cynthia returned to the mobile home where she ingested approximately 12 Quaaludes. She was found unconscious by Patti Gwara, who took her to the hospital. She received emergency treatment and survived.

For some months she lived with the Gwaras and Edward St. Clair in Aurora. She then returned to her parental home in a northern suburb of Chicago where St. Clair lived with her for the better part of a year. She and St. Clair then separated. For the past two years Ms. Gilardi has been living with another man away from her parental home.

She testified credibly to her despondency and rejection of sexual activities for a considerable period of time following the incident of September 13, 1981. She was able to return to work in July 1982 and she has progressed through four salary grades since then and appears to be well-adjusted in her work, in her life and in her relationship with others at this time.

St. Clair disputed Ms. Gilardi's testimony with respect to her rejection of sexual activities. He testified that she remained sexually active throughout the entire period that he was living with her both in Aurora with the Gwaras and in Cynthia's parental home. St. Clair is of dubious credibility. We have previously referred to his affidavit before the EEOC in which he explicitly charged Gary Schroeder with sexual misconduct. He testified before the EEOC that Schroeder admitted that he had "planned" his drugging of and sexual activity with Ms. Gilardi. Yet he testified on...