Venture capital firm accused of sexual harassment

The state accused a former Bay Area venture capital firm Monday of sexually harassing a female employee, who allegedly was touched repeatedly by a company executive without her consent.

The Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Silicon Valley Growth Syndicate I in San Francisco, where the company formerly was headquartered. It is now based in Little Rock, Ark., and invests money in startup businesses.

The suit focused on the conduct of Lee McNutt of Dallas, the company’s cofounder and owner of another firm, International Direct Mail Consultants, that jointly employed the woman cited in the lawsuit. According to the Silicon Valley Growth Syndicate’s website, McNutt has led 53 U.S. trade missions for internet and direct marketing abroad and has consulted with more than 50 firms worldwide.

The state agency said McNutt also is believed to have “engaged in sexually harassing conduct against female interns and employees for more than a decade.” The Dallas Morning News reported that his alma mater, Southern Methodist University, barred him from campus in 2009 after complaints from female students.

According to Monday’s Superior Court lawsuit, the employee, identified only as Jane Doe, was a student at Southern Methodist when McNutt approached her at children’s soccer games in 2015 and 2016 and offered her various odd jobs. She was hired as an intern for the venture capital firm in January 2017, and then became the company’s vice president for operations and communications.

In July 2017, the suit said, McNutt ordered Jane Doe to accompany him on a trip to Florida, where he took her to a beach and on a boat and held her hands, grabbed her forearms while talking to her, and touched her thigh, while she pulled away.

The next month he showed Jane Doe photos he had taken of her in a bathing suit, without her permission, the suit said. Shortly afterward, the suit said, he took her to a convention in Reno and invited her to a spa, where he pulled down her robe and started massaging her shoulders and back with oil.

And on a companymandated trip to La Jolla (San Diego County), the suit said, he took her to a nude beach, where he disrobed, and at their lodgings he later gave her a massage, sliding his hands under her shorts.

Jane Doe refused to stay with McNutt on a trip to Florida in January 2018, and two months later her lawyer sent McNutt a complaint alleging violations of state laws and suggesting that the woman be put on paid leave, the suit said. She was dismissed from the company in June 2018.

The suit seeks unspecified damages for Jane Doe, including punitive damages, from the company, McNutt and other executives, and a court order barring future harassment.

McNutt said he and the company would not comment on the suit.