Dallas real estate CEO Robert “Bob” Lovell was ordered this week to pay $5.7 million in damages and fees after a judge determined he repeatedly forced a former employee to perform sex acts and then retaliated against her when she refused.
The ruling, issued Monday by Dallas County Court at Law Judge Sally Montgomery, is the first to hold an individual Texas business owner or employee personally liable under a law that went into effect in 2021, according to the woman’s attorney, Rogge Dunn.
“This judgment sends a message: Executives and employees who sexually harass employees and then retaliate when those employees stand up for themselves will face significant consequences,” Dunn said in a statement.
Lovell, president and owner of Home Marketing Services Inc., is well known in the Dallas area for his television commercials in which he urges people to “stop making your landlord richer and give us a call.” The ads famously carried the tagline “bless your heart.”
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Lovell’s attorney, Larry Friedman, didn’t respond Tuesday to a request for comment.
The former employee, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, sued Lovell in December 2021 after working for him for about three years, according to Dunn.
Montgomery wrote in a finding of facts in the case that she believed the victim’s testimony over Lovell’s. Testimony from other employees corroborated the victim’s statements, the judge said.
“All of Defendant’s actions toward Plaintiff were willful, intentional, outrageous, and malicious acts designed to discriminate, sexual assault, commit battery, retaliate and cause severe intentional infliction of emotional distress and mental anguish in addition to violating her protected legal rights under both Texas Statutory law and common law,” Montgomery wrote.
The sexual harassment and assaults began several months after the woman began working for Lovell and continued until she was fired about two and a half years later, according to her attorney.
Lovell used code words and phrases to let the woman know he wanted oral sex, according to the judge’s findings.
The woman, who was also supporting her adolescent daughter and mother at the time, “reasonably believed” she would lose her job if she refused, the judge ruled.
When the woman tried to avoid Lovell, he would go into her office and say things like, “What are we going to do about your daughter’s health insurance premiums?” while grabbing his crotch, the order said.
When the woman gave in to Lovell’s demands, Lovell gave her the best sales leads, known as “JR leads” in the office, the document said. When she refused, she didn’t get them.
As a result of the assaults, the woman developed depression, anxiety, insomnia, and headaches. She also was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and began losing her hair, the judge’s order said.
It wasn’t until the woman’s adult daughter was sexually harassed by Lovell that she finally refused his demands, the judge’s findings said. Lovell removed the woman’s younger daughter from her health insurance plan immediately afterwards, the document said. After the woman filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and informed Lovell of her intent to sue, she was fired.
A second woman sued Lovell in 2023, alleging that he fondled her breasts when she delivered the custom clothes he had ordered from her. It was not known Tuesday whether that case was still pending.