Ex-Nevada test site guard sues over assault, harassment

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — A former security guard at the Nevada National Security Site is suing her former employer over allegations she was sexually assaulted and harassed by colleagues and then retaliated against for reporting the incidents.

Jennifer Glover said in her lawsuit filed Monday that security firm she worked for created a work environment with “rampant and vicious gender-based discrimination” where colleagues made inappropriate sexual comments, a co-worker exposed himself to her and several colleagues assaulted her during a training exercise.

The Associated Press doesn’t typically name alleged victims of sexual assault. But Glover held a news conference Monday and said she consented to be identified.

“The harassment started off pretty much immediately as I was going through the training. It got worse as I actually got onto the field,” Glover said Monday.

She’s suing Centerra, the firm contracted to provide security for the Nevada site where atomic bombs were once detonated. Centerra was Glover’s employer in October 2017, when she says she was assaulted.

Gus Redding, who worked with Glover at the site, filed his own lawsuit Monday saying he was harassed and retaliated against by his employer, SOC, which took over Centerra’s contract. Redding says he was punished for cooperating with the investigations into Glover’s claims.

Centerra denied the allegations in an email to the AP on Monday, saying it “appropriately responded to and thoroughly investigated the claims Ms. Glover brought to its attention in January 2018.”

SOC did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday. The firm said previously it “took appropriate disciplinary action” after Glover made her allegations.

The 1,360-square-mile Nevada site is still used as a testing, research and training site for the U.S. government as it studies nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biological and other weapons.