Woman awarded $250K for sharing of nude video
A jury has found a Houston firefighter liable after officials said he secretly took an intimate video from a colleague’s personal laptop and shared it with other firefighters.
The jury awarded former firefighter Melinda Abbt more than $250,000 — $80,000 for mental anguish, $50,000 in exemplary damages and more than $120,000 in her litigation fees — after less than a hour of deliberating earlier this month in her case against Chris Barrientes, whom she had worked with at Station 18 in the East End.
She learned in May 2017 that Barrientes and others had obtained a nude video of her nearly a decade earlier after she left her laptop at the station while going to a call, according to records. Barrientes went on to repeatedly watch the video that had been intended for her now-husband.
A since-retired district chief, David Elliott, confessed to Abbt’s husband, Eric Abbt, that Barrientes obtained the video in 2008 and had shared it with him, according to court records.
During the two-day civil trial, the husband tearfully testified on Nov. 16 that he and Abbt had planned to make a career at the Houston Fire Department but the revelation over the leaked video jeopardized that life together. He grappled with how or when to tell his wife about the video — waiting until after Mother’s Day to tell her.
“I didn’t want to mess up Mother’s Day,” he said.
She collapsed upon being told about Barrientes and others being in possession of the video and refused to return to work. Her husband also left the depart
ment.
“There was no way I could go back to work with those guys knowing what I know.”
The jury verdict later that afternoon had followed a precedent-setting appellate ruling in Abbt’s litigation that expanded sexual harassment law as something that can happen to someone without their knowledge at the time. The ruling partially reversed a federal decision by U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes to not let her sexual harassment case proceed, saying she was unable to prove a hostile work environment.
“She is angry and embarrassed,” the judge had said.
Barrientes, who was demoted two ranks following an investigation into his obtaining and sharing of the video, remains employed at the Houston Fire Department, Chief Sam Peña on Friday said.
Peña has cited restrictive state law for why Barrientes was allowed to keep his job. The head of a fire department may not issue an indefinite suspension for an act that happened six months before the proposed suspension.
“I would have terminated him if the issue would have been discovered when it occurred,” Peña said.
Barrientes did not testify during the civil trial and his lawyer, Joseph Soliz, offered no witnesses in the cases.
During closing arguments, Soliz maintained to jurors that Barrientes received the video in an email — a claim that city records show the firefighter initially said when confronted about the allegation.
“He didn’t know what it was when he received it,” said Soliz, speaking softly during his brief remarks.
A Chronicle review of city records shows Barrientes told Elliott that he took the video from Abbt’s laptop and kept the footage for years and continued to watch it.
Barrientes deleted the video after receiving notice of the internal investigation into his actions, Peña wrote in a disciplinary notice. He and another firefighter who viewed the video were suspended. Elliot, by then, had retired.
Jordan Warshauer, Abbt’s lawyer, told jurors that Barrientes should have come clean sooner.
Separate civil action by Abbt against the city of Houston remains pending in federal court.