‘Inexcusable and illegal.’ Eastern WA thrift shop workers, shoppers sexually harassed

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

Thelbert “Thad” Lawson Jr. was accused of sexually harassing female employees, volunteers and shoppers at the two stores, including unwanted touching, asking employees to expose their bodies to him, asking questions about employees’ sex lives and asking for sexual favors.

He founded and was the chief executive 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 off Columbia Center Boulevard.

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

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

Friday, a jury found that Lawson’s repeated, pervasive sexual harassment of employees and the public and retaliation against female employees violated the Washington Law Against Discrimination, according to the Office of the Attorney General.

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

Ferguson plans to file a motion next asking the court to prevent Lawson from being in a position to supervise or harass women in the future and to require the defendants to pay the state its costs and fees for bringing the lawsuit.

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

In 2017, a woman who was not an employee obtained a restraining order against Lawson after he locked her in a basement room of the Wenatchee store and she had to run past him to escape, according to the Office of Attorney General.

In July 2021, a jury found Lawson guilty of assault for sexually grinding his body against another woman who who was not an employee of the store. The Office of Attorney General said he had trapped her in the office of the nonprofit’s Wenatchee store.

Sexual harassment

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

The other seven women Lawson harassed where employees, including one Lawson believed had contacted an attorney. He began to ask other employees whether there were grounds to fire her and told her she would no longer be on the work schedule, according to the AG.

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

Court documents say he forced several employees to quit their employment or employees quit because working conditions were intolerable. He also is accused of retaliation by rescheduling hours, assigning more difficult job duties and denying overtime payments to women who rejected his sexual harassment.

Some women reported Lawson’s sexual misconduct to the president of the nonprofit board, store managers and supervisors, but the nonprofit took no reasonable action to investigate or stop Lawson, according to court documents.

The nonprofit’s board is made up of Lawson’s friends and family members, according to the AG.

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

To report employment discrimination, contact the Office of the Attorney General at civilrights@atg.wa.gov.

This story was originally published June 7, 2024 at 12:46 PM.