Minnesota sues drywall company accused of firing worker who reported being raped on jobsite

By Stephen Swanson, Beret Leone

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    MINNESOTA (WCCO) — Minnesota is joining a lawsuit filed against a Twin Cities construction company after its management allegedly fired a woman who reported being sexually harassed and raped on the job by a co-worker.

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights says the lawsuit was filed by Norma Izaguirre, who alleges Lakeville’s Absolute Drywall violated the state’s Human Rights Act by failing to protect her from harassment and sexual assault. The office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison took on the case following the department’s investigation.

According to the lawsuit, Izaguirre says she first learned of the job opportunity with Absolute Drywall from her eventual rapist, 32-year-old Juan Diego Medina Cisneros, while at a restaurant. She went on to work as an on-site cleaner for the company from January to September 2021 and was “immediately and consistently sexually harassed” by Cisneros, who worked as a drywall laborer.

Documents say Cisneros raped her while she was cleaning a bathroom on a worksite in Eagan in May of that year. Izaguirre says she reported Cisneros five times to management, who “failed to take any meaningful action” and eventually decreased her work hours down to zero, according to court documents.

Cisneros was charged in 2022 with third- and fifth-degree sexual assault and soon fled to Mexico, his criminal complaint states. He pleaded guilty late last year and reached a plea deal last month that would see him serving three years in prison. The duration of his sentence will ultimately be decided by a judge in July.

Izaguirre filed a human rights complaint with the state, which eventually found Absolute Drywall had no policies in place to prevent harassment and assault or ways its workers could report it, including those who speak Spanish.

“When anyone is discriminated against or harassed, our state and our businesses are deprived of enormous potential,” said Rebecca Lucero, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. “Norma deserved to be treated with humanity. Instead, Absolute Drywall allowed sexual harassment and rape to go unchecked.”

Izaguirre is seeking damages and is demanding the company make “clear anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies,” and to ensure its employees “can easily report sexual harassment, assault and other forms of discrimination.”

“The State’s decision to join my case against Absolute Drywall is an acknowledgment of not only my truth, but also the unacceptable reality that women like me, Latina women, too often face sexual harassment and assault in the construction industry,” Izaguirre said. “I hope that by standing up for myself and speaking out, other women feel empowered to tell their stories and employers who are abusive to their workers are held accountable.”

Absolute Drywall is also facing wage theft-related legal action by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. WCCO has attempted to reach out to the company for comment but has not made contact.

The department says Minnesota is among the top states when it comes to the percentage of women working in the construction industry. A 2021 report by Institute for Women’s Policy and Research found nearly a quarter of the female construction workers it surveyed said they face frequent sexual harassment from co-workers.

In January, the department settled a lawsuit with Home Depot on behalf of a woman who was sexually harassed by co-workers for years at its Fridley location.

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights also entered into a consent decree in 2023 with the owner of several Twin Cities McDonald’s restaurants after a 14-year-old employee was sexually assaulted by her manager.

Find more information on how to report workplace harassment and discrimination on the Department of Human Rights’ website.

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