Former executive’s lawsuit against Bardstown Bourbon Co. whistleblower dismissed
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Judge Julie Kaelin dismissed Herb Heneman’s defamation suit on June 12.
- Kaelin awarded Sanders court costs in her June 12 order.
- Sanders’ Nelson County discrimination suit alleges retaliation and references Heneman.
A defamation lawsuit filed by a former Bardstown Bourbon Company executive against a whistleblower has been dismissed.
Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Julie Kaelin on June 12 dismissed the lawsuit filed by former BBC chief commercial officer Herb Heneman. The judge also awarded former human resources vice president Sylvia Sanders court costs.
Heneman was mentioned in Sanders’ discrimination lawsuit against the company, but he was not party to the suit.
On Feb. 13, Sanders filed a lawsuit in Nelson County accusing Bardstown Bourbon Company, parent Lofted Spirits, Lofted CEO Mark Erwin, BBC president Peter Marino, Pritzker Private Capital Investment Partners and PPC operating partner Christian Brickman of gender discrimination and retaliation.
Bardstown Bourbon and parent Lofted Spirits are part of Pritzker Private Capital, which is owned by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Anthony N. Pritzker. Gov. Pritzker is not involved in the company.
Heneman alleged that Sanders’ suit “made utterly false derogatory and disparaging statements against” him.
In the discrimination suit, Sanders alleges she was fired after sending a lengthy memo to Erwin outlining widespread concerns, including what she called a pattern of bias involving multiple female executives who had been fired or forced out under Erwin’s tenure. Among the fired executives, Sanders said in the memo to Erwin, was a former marketing director who had raised concerns about Heneman, the marketing director’s boss at the time.
The marketing director thought Heneman was “a sexual predator, and that his inappropriate sexist actions and comments (which had already been the subject of prior disciplinary action) made (her) feel extremely uncomfortable,” the lawsuit alleged. Two other female Bardstown Bourbon Co. employees also had made complaints about Heneman, at least one of which went to the board of directors.
Sanders’ memo to Erwin also referenced another incident: Sanders said in the original complaint that Erwin told her Heneman took another employee’s jeep and drove it through BBC’s cornfield drunk during country singer Brad Paisley’s visit to the distillery.
According to the original complaint, Erwin said he “probably should have said something to him about that.” Instead, Erwin promoted Heneman to chief marketing officer, gave him 100 barrels of whiskey and shares in the company, Sanders alleged in the original lawsuit.
Heneman declined to comment. He has previously denied all allegations, as has Bardstown Bourbon Co.
In Kaelin’s order last week, she found that Sanders’ allegations in her original lawsuit “are absolutely critical to Sanders’s claims of both discrimination, as well as retaliation. Indeed, they are part of the chronology through which Sanders contends BBC, with the full knowledge and consent of Pritzker, retaliated against women who reported misconduct and the retaliated against Sanders when she escalated those concerns further.”
The judge noted that the Nelson Circuit Court had overruled in its entirety BBC’s motion to strike the complaint “where BBC alleged that these allegations were collateral, impertinent, irrelevant, unnecessary, or scandalous,” including those against Heneman.
Meanwhile, in the original Nelson County Circuit Court case, Sanders is appealing a May 28 order that denied her expedited motion to dismiss a counterclaim by BBC.
A separate discrimination case filed in May by another former Bardstown Bourbon Co. female employee is also ongoing. Earlier this month, BBC filed a motion to dismiss that lawsuit.
