The women behind the lawsuit are seeking to more clearly tie them to the now former agents’ misconduct after a judge previously dismissed Sanford and eXp’s cases.
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Less than three weeks after a judge dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit against eXp and its founder Glenn Sanford, the women who filed the lawsuit have again added the company and executives to the case as defendants.
Anya Roberts names eXp Realty, parent company eXp World Holdings and Sanford as defendants in a new amended complaint filed June 13. · André Birotte dismissed the lawsuit from the brokerage, parent company and Sanford at the end of May. Beyond that, Birot said Roberts failed to establish an employer relationship between Sanford and the other defendants or show how eXp benefited from ignoring the misconduct allegations.
The newly amended indictment seeks to tie Sanford and eXp to alleged wrongdoing by other defendants in the case.
However, eXp argued in a statement to Inman on Tuesday that the allegations against it were baseless.
“EXp Realty has zero tolerance for any form of abuse, harassment or inappropriate conduct, including that of independent real estate agents who use our services,” the statement read. Individual claims are filed and the courts will provide plaintiffs with a full and fair hearing. However, the allegations against eXp and its leadership have no basis in fact or law.
News of the revised complaint was first reported by Shell wire.
Roberts first filed the lawsuit in December. She also claims that David Golden, now a former eXp agent and recruiter, and his girlfriend Emily Keenan drugged and sexually assaulted her during a 2020 boating trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. , she also claimed in court documents that Golden promised her “more financial success” if she made him a sponsor.
A month after the Puerto Vallarta incident, Roberts traveled to Daytona Beach, Florida, where Golden allegedly gave her a “performance-enhancing exercise drug” in their shared hotel room, according to her complaint. She passed out again and allegedly woke up the next morning to find another agent and recruiter, Michael Bjorkman, exposing himself to her.
Golden, Keenan and Bjorkman are all named as defendants in the case. The case also names current eXp agent Michael Sherrard as a defendant, saying he molested Roberts in 2021.
Additionally, the newly amended complaint reinstates eXp agent and team leader Brent Gove into the case. Goff, who presided over the event where the alleged attack occurred, was initially a defendant in the case, but a judge dismissed him along with Sanford and company in May.
In rejecting Sanford and the other defendants’ request, the judge said last month that Roberts failed to prove that Sanford and eXp received any benefit “from the plaintiffs’ switching sponsors due to the alleged sexual conduct.” The judge also said Roberts failed to prove that Sanford and eXp were aware of the report she filed with police. In Gove’s case, the judge said Roberts’ complaint needed “more facts” to prove Gove knew about the team members’ alleged conduct.
Roberts’ new, amended complaint seeks to address those different concerns. For example, it noted that in October 2020, eXp “received a memo detailing Bjorkman and Golden’s previous blatant, public and well-known conduct in which they frequently invited “agents to recruitment parties where they Will drug and assault” individuals – under the guise of agent attraction. “
The amended complaint later stated that in April 2022, an eXp board member told fellow board members that the company “failed to take any action to curb sexual assault incidents that occurred at eXp Realty.” The amended complaint alleges that the company ignored the board member’s recommended solutions, and Sanford himself said the allegations “were not eXp’s problem.” The amended indictment also states that Sanford said the charges, along with Bjorkman’s arrest, “were just a blip in the papers for three to five days and then disappeared.”
These anecdotes are clearly intended to show that eXp and Sanford were aware of the situation but failed to take appropriate action.
Ultimately, the amended complaint states that the “abhorrent conduct” that prompted the lawsuit was “rife in eXp’s culture; they occurred during eXp events, at agent-sponsored events and at events attended by eXp; and it permeated the company in the culture.
Roberts’ lawsuit isn’t the only eXp lawsuit raising sexual assault issues; in another case, former eXp recruits Fabiola Acevedo, Tami Sims, Christiana Lundy and another woman named Jane Doe 3 made similar accusations against Golden and Bjorkman. The lawsuit names Golden, Bjorkman, Gove, eXp World Holdings, eXp Realty and Sanford as defendants.
In Roberts’ case, she filed a total of eight different counts against various defendants, including sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and other charges. She closed the amended complaint by asking for a jury trial and unspecified damages.
Please read the full amended complaint here:
Email Jim Dalrymple II
