EXTRA CONTENT: Lawsuit accuses local restaurant owner of sexual harassment

Read the complete text of the lawsuit by clicking here.

A Williamsburg woman is claiming that a Corbin restaurant owner subjected her to "numerous acts of sexual harassment" while she worked as a waitress there.

Kelly Bryant filed a civil complaint, which contains the allegations, in Whitley Circuit Court in late February against Yamato, Inc. and Tom Dong, owner and manager of Yamato Steak House of Japan, located on US 25E in Corbin near the Tri-County Square Shopping Center.

The complaint contends that Bryant, who began working at Yamato on April 15, 2009, was verbally harassed by Dong and other employees at the restaurant. The comments, the lawsuit claims, included observations about the size of Bryant’s breasts and propositions for sex in exchange for money.

Dong offered from $100 up to $1,000 to have sex with Bryant, according to the complaint, and he would sometimes follow her out to her vehicle if she would try to get away.

Bryant claims that on Aug. 9, 2009, she was the only server in the restaurant and that Dong was the only manager on duty. She needed his assistance with customers but could not find him. She later located him in a back storage room "lying down on restaurant inventory and apparently intoxicated."

"When Plaintiff woke Tom Dong he looked up and said to her, ‘Come over here and get on top of me," to which the Plaintiff refused and walked away.

Bryant eventually left Yamato after filing the lawsuit. She claims her right to be free from sexual harassment in the workplace under the Kentucky Civil Rights act has been violated. She is seeking monetary compensation for lost wages, humiliation, embarrassment and mental anguish.

The lawsuit was filed on Bryant’s behalf by Louisville attorney Matthew H. Jones of Jones and Bruce law firm.

Yamato is actually located in the Knox County portion of Corbin, so the lawsuit will likely have to be re-filed or transferred in Knox Circuit Court before it can proceed.