Updated: KY business owner pleads guilty, faces lawsuit over sexual harassment claims
The owner of a garden center in Somerset has pleaded guilty to harassment but still faces a lawsuit after he was accused of sexually harassing employees, violating wage and hour rules, assault and more.
Mark Owens, 64, pleaded guilty Friday to one charge of harassment with physical contact but no injury. He will pay a $250 fine, court records indicate. He still is being sued in Pulaski County Circuit Court over allegations of sexual harassment, wage and hour violations, battery, assault and harassment, according to court documents.
The alleged victim who filed the suit is also suing the Owens Garden Center LLC, and Black Dog Investments, LLC. In the lawsuit, which was filed last year, Owens is accused of misconduct toward the plaintiff and other females he employed.
The former employee alleged Owens touched her inappropriately on multiple occasions while she was 16 and 17 by rubbing her pierced belly button, rubbing her legs and the inside of her thighs, and touching her around and inside of her underwear, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states Owens also called the victim his “girlfriend” and told her he would “come to her house when her father was out of town, look in her windows and watch her walk around naked.”
Owens is also accused of telling the victim “you need to shave your legs, so I can rub on them. It is nasty when you don’t shave your legs,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states the victim repeatedly told Owens to “stop” but that the conduct “continued and progressed over time.”
In multiple affidavits which were filed into the court record, other Owens Gardens employees alleged they saw and heard inappropriate remarks from Owens towards the victim and other underage female employees. Two affidavits from previous employees alleged Owens touched them without permission and made uncomfortable comments while they were underage.
A previous employee wrote in her affidavit that Owens admitted to her directly, “I do (the sexual harassment and touching) to make them feel comfortable. ... If I don’t quit doing this, someone is going to turn me into social services.”
The employee said Owens witnessed the harassment of the victim “about everyday she worked.”
The victim resigned from her position at the garden center in April 2022 and filed a police report with Kentucky State Police in May, according to the lawsuit.
Owens was interviewed by KSP on May 13, 2022, according to the lawsuit.
In the interview, Owens said “I am not necessarily gonna deny that I did any of that but it wasn’t continual,” according to the lawsuit.
“I am not gonna deny that she had a belly button ring, you know, and I’d rub it and I’d rub her shoulders, and I did all the girls the same way,” a transcript of the interview says.
All three defendants deny claims made in the complaint, according to court documents.
Owens did deny allegations that he put his hands down in the victim’s underwear. He was arrested June 2, 2022, and charged with a misdemeanor offense of harassment, which is the charge he pleaded guilty to..
The victim’s attorney, Bradley Zoppoth, said no resolution can be reached in the civil lawsuit until the criminal case has been closed.
Owens’ attorney, Jerry Cox, was not immediately available for comment.
This story was originally published August 17, 2023 at 9:09 AM.
