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Kettering landlord ordered to pay $244,000 for sexual harassment

A tenant taped his persistent talk of sex after complaining to police.

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By Lou Grieco, Staff Writer 10:44 PM Friday, August 7, 2009

The conversation between the landlord and his tenant kept returning to sex.

Arthur Burton asked the young woman about her sex life, about when she last had it, and most persistently, whether she would have sex with him. She always said no.

“You’re probably a sexual dynamo, aren’t you?” he asked.

“I ain’t going to answer that question,” she replied, according to a transcript of a conversation she secretly taped.

On July 30, a Montgomery County jury found that Burton, owner of a Kettering apartment complex, did sexually harass the woman, who was both a tenant and an employee, since she agreed to help him clean apartments and type up lease agreements.

The jury awarded the woman $150,000 in compensatory damages and $50,000 in punitive damages. The jury also awarded nearly $44,000 in damages to the Fair Housing Advocates Association, which helped bring the case to court.

“I just hope it does not happen to anybody else,” the woman said Wednesday, Aug. 5. “I don’t believe this is the first time this has happened and I really, really hope that it is the last.”

Burton’s attorney, Dwight Brannon, said that he expected to win on appeal.

“Reasonable minds will prevail,” he said.

FHAA Director Vincent B. Curry said the evidence was overwhelming.

“This is one of the most blatant cases that my office has been involved in,” Curry said.

The Dayton Daily News does not identify victims of sexual assault. While this was not a criminal case, the paper has agreed not to identify the victim by name.

She was 20 when she moved in to Apartment C, 1243 Devon Ave., on April 8, 2007.

The apartment door had been kicked in, and Burton came by to fix it. During the week she lived there, he never finished the job. Instead, he asked her questions about herself. Soon, he was propositioning her for sex.

She came to his apartment to work on his computer, and pornography was playing on the television.

When police told her she needed evidence, she decided to get some — she hid a digital recorder in her bra.

The transcript of her conversations with Burton, made on April 13, 2007, runs nearly 150 pages. It contains much mundane conversation about Burton’s business, but the topic of sex keeps returning.

Burton tells her she turns him on. He asks her if she is attracted to him. He repeatedly propositions her.

The woman mentions several times that she was offended that he offered to pay her for sex. Burton explains repeatedly that he didn’t want her to lose money for sex with him during working hours.

“What if we had sex for two or three hours and you lost three hours of money you need to pay your bills?” Burton says. “Think about it, sweetheart.”

Burton tells her that sex wouldn’t compromise their business relationship.

“You don’t see how I already separated it?” he asks. “I make sure you get paid for work, so that’s it. No matter what.”

He also says sex won’t get her a break on the rent.

“If you don’t pay and I evict you, you’ll probably say I sexually harassed you,” he said.

The woman showed great courage in coming forward, and was smart in taping her harasser, Curry said.

“The evidence actually allowed us to hear the harassment,” Curry said. “Without this type of evidence, it becomes a he-said-she-said situation.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2057 or lgrieco @DaytonDailyNews.com.

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