Christine Brenneman had been on the job just two weeks when, she alleged, her supervisor, David Ryburn, started to make unwanted sexual advances toward her at a Famous Dave’s restaurant in West Des Moines, Iowa.
Ryburn began by winking at his new assistant manager and blew kisses to her every day. Four weeks after Brenneman’s arrival in February 2003, he started to slap her buttocks. Ryburn also allegedly made off-color and improper remarks: He offered to review Brenneman’s job performance at her home and invited her to go over his “expectations” after hours. When an envelope he gave her turned out to be too small, he suggested she “pretend it was a condom and slip it on real soft.”
