The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against State College, Pennsylvania, landlord Venkatachalam Mani, alleging he sexually harassed a female tenant and retaliated against her when she refused his advances, violating the federal Fair Housing Act.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, states that Mani made unwelcome sexual advances and physically touched the tenant without her consent.
According to federal prosecutors, after the tenant rejected his advances, Mani ignored her repeated maintenance requests.
The ignored repairs included fixing a broken furnace during freezing winter temperatures, which eventually caught fire and forced the woman and her children to leave the home.
“The landlord failed to fix a tenant’s furnace despite freezing temperatures because the female tenant refused his sexual advances, forcing her family to move out with no other place to live,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “This conduct is illegal. The Justice Department will uphold the rights of female tenants to housing without the threat of sexual harassment by a landlord.”
U.S. Attorney Brian D. Miller for the Middle District of Pennsylvania echoed those concerns, stating that attempts to exploit tenants for sexual favors, as well as sexual assault and landlord retaliation, will not be tolerated in the district.
The legal action stems from an initial complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which investigated the matter and issued a formal charge of discrimination before referring the case to the Department of Justice.
The government’s lawsuit aims to secure monetary damages for the affected tenant and her family, along with a court order preventing Mani from engaging in future housing discrimination.
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