Grindr sued by former employee who claims HR supervisor drugged and raped him at Christmas party
The victim claims that after being drugged, he was taken to a hotel where he was sodomised.
A former employee of Grindr has filed a lawsuit against the social networking app alleging he was sexually assaulted while with the West Hollywood-based company. The unnamed person claims he was drugged during the 2016 office Christmas party and then raped by the Human Resources supervisor.
According to TMZ, the plaintiff said that after being drugged at the event, Daniel Cabanero put him into a car and drove him to a hotel. At some point, he had passed out but regained consciousness to find Cabanero holding him down and sodomising him.
He blacked out again and on waking up, went to the hospital where he was subjected to a "highly invasive and humiliating rape examination", the gossip website reported.
The victim said that he also reported the assault to the police who are currently conducting an investigation into the matter.
Advocate.com added that the plaintiff is also holding other employees culpable for the alleged rape claiming that despite seeing him in an impaired state, they did nothing to help or protect him. He added that the company as a whole encouraged sexual misconduct and explicit language in the workplace.
Grindr released a statement to IBTimes UK clarifying that Cabanero was not a supervisor but a "HR employee" and is no longer with the company.
"As soon as the company was notified about the alleged incident, we took immediate steps to investigate this matter in a compassionate and respectful way," the company said. "In addition to conducting our own internal investigation, Grindr fully cooperated with the local authorities. Following their review of the facts, the local authorities have not pressed criminal charges to date."
Grindr's app was launched in 2009 and is specifically tailored to the community of gay, bi, curious and queer men. It has been lauded for changing the gay dating culture across the globe, allowing users to meet for the purpose of intimate relations, in a safe environment.
(This report has been updated to include the official statement by Grindr.)
