Carson Group’s former chief marketing officer, Mary Kate Gulick, is suing the company for unlawful discrimination, retaliation and termination in the aftermath of an alleged sexual assault that took place in 2022 at a conference, the lawsuit states.

Filed in the District Court of Douglas County, Nebraska, the lawsuit includes six charges of sex discrimination, retaliation, and disability discrimination under the Nebraska Fair Employment Practices Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“We are aware of the claims made against Carson Group by a former employee. While we are limited in our ability to comment on active litigation, we unequivocally dispute these allegations, and we will vigorously defend ourselves against these claims,” a Carson spokesperson said. “The people of Carson Group are its most important asset, and the organization remains dedicated to ensuring their continued well-being and helping them to achieve their professional goals.”

The time line laid out in the complaint began in late June 2022, when Gulick, a year after being hired, expressed dissatisfaction with the culture at Carson Group and shared plans to resign as soon as Carson found a replacement CMO.

It ended on June 7, 2023, with her termination.

Between those two points were the key details: in September 2022, Gulick attended a conference to represent Carson Group with some other Carson employees. At that conference, one of those employees allegedly sexually assaulted a conference attendee, the complaint said.

Following the alleged assault, some top leadership at Carson, including Teri Shepherd, president, and Kelsey Ruwe, chief of staff and human resources leader, assured Gulick that the charges of sexual assault would be handled appropriately, the complaint said.

At least one other leader, however, cast doubt on the company’s culture in the wake of the assault allegation. In a text exchange with Gulick reprinted in the complaint, Burt White, managing partner and chief strategy officer, wrote that he feels he is “fighting against all of what Carson is. Like I’m rejecting a bad organ implant.”

“The firm needs a sharp right turn and frankly, this company is driven horribly,” he added in the text. “I don’t want to be associated with so much that this firm does and stands for.”

It was announced earlier this month that White was taking over the reins of the company as CEO as founder Ron Carson moved into a chairman role.

In October, Gulick expressed to her therapist that she was struggling following a “major work-related incident,” the complaint said. However, she agreed to stay on at Carson Group in a lesser position, partially because she said she needed the income and partially because she said she felt responsible to the women she had hired knowing that the alleged sexual assailant was still at the company, the complaint said.

In November 2022, Gulick was told by Ruwe that Ron Carson had made the decision not to fire the alleged assailant, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, this took an additional toll on Gulick’s mental and physical health—in addition to not being able to sleep at night, she was struggling to eat and stave off depression to the point where on Jan. 24, 2023, Gulick applied for intermittent Family and Medical Leave Act benefits. These would allow her to keep her job while seeking treatment for what she described was a major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic brain impairment, according to the complaint.

In February 2023, Gulick was told she’d receive only 75% of her target bonus for the second half of 2022, the reason given being that she was communicating “in a negative way,” the complaint said. When she met with another Carson executive to discuss her review, she was told she “had been a disappointment to him over the past months and that she needed to be ‘less emotional’ about work,” the complaint said.

On June 5, 2023, Gulick told a Carson executive that the conference and its aftermath had been incredibly traumatic for her, to the point where “she still ‘could not force down more than a few hundred calories a day’ and was still having nightmares,” the complaint said.

The next day, Gulick was terminated, she said.

“Carson Group executives subjected Mary Kate to repeated demeaning and insulting comments about her perceived inability or unwillingness to simply forget about the alleged sexual assault by Carson Group’s employee, move on, and get over it,” the complaint said. “Carson Group approved Mary Kate’s application for intermittent FMLA, which it knew she required for a medical diagnosis of major depressive disorder and PTSD. Carson Group then fired Mary Kate because she didn’t seem happy or like she was ‘having fun.’”

Gulick’s lawsuit is seeking a judgment against Carson Group that includes punitive damages, interest, attorneys’ fees and court costs.