{"id":247429,"date":"2026-04-13T11:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247429\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T11:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:30:09","slug":"tesla-seeks-arbitration-in-gigafactory-texas-assault-lawsuit-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247429\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla seeks arbitration in Gigafactory Texas assault lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tesla<\/p>\n

Tesla employee Lillian Brady speaks in March about her allegation that co-worker Ndiaga Diagne assaulted her at\u00a0Gigafactory Texas in early December, months before he carried out a mass shooting\u00a0on Austin\u2019s West Sixth Street.<\/p>\n

Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

Tesla Inc. wants a judge to deny a court trial to a woman who says she was\u00a0physically assaulted by a fellow employee<\/a> at Gigafactory Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Austin automaker\u2019s lawyers say that\u00a0Lillian Brady<\/a>, who filed suit last month after her assailant was identified as the\u00a0suspect in a mass shooting<\/a> on West Sixth Street, agreed to an out-of-court process to resolve disputes with Tesla when she was hired and that\u2019s how her case should be handled.<\/p>\n

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Brady\u2019s attorneys acknowledge that she agreed to arbitration as a condition of employment but argue her claims are outside the scope of the agreement. They say the deal she signed doesn\u2019t clearly delegate such a case to an arbitrator\u00a0\u2014 and cannot if she was sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n

Brady filed suit against Tesla four days after Ndiaga Diagne<\/a> was identified by police as the gunman in the March 1 shooting spree that left three people dead and 15 injured in downtown Austin. She says he physically assaulted her in early December inside the plant, leading her to accuse Tesla of failing to monitor the factory\u2019s common areas or supervise sanctioned activities in those spaces, \u201ccreating an unreasonably dangerous condition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She also has accused Tesla of not knowing its employees\u2019 backgrounds and withholding Diagne\u2019s identity as she sought for months to pursue charges against him.<\/p>\n

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During a hearing Thursday in state District Court in Austin, Tesla attorney Joshua Romero cited Brady\u2019s lawsuit along with Tesla\u2019s \u201cbroad\u201d arbitration agreement, which says \u201cany and all disputes arriving from or related to your employment go to arbitration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Brady\u2019s lawyers made a case to Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle that Tesla uses arbitration when it suits it, telling the judge \u201cthey cannot use this as a sword and a shield.\u201d They said Brady\u2019s claims are outside the scope of the agreement\u2019s terms and argued for the first time that Diagne\u2019s actions that morning could amount to sexual assault.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Romero told the judge\u00a0it\u2019s \u201cabsolutely true\u201d that a sexual assault case would\u00a0counteract arbitration<\/a> but said the facts belie the claim. \u201cIt\u2019s absurd to say it\u2019s a sexual assault case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brady\u2019s lawyers argued that if a non-employee had walked through the common area and been similarly assaulted, they could have sued Tesla.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Romero said that would constitute trespassing, as only invitees and employees can access Gigafactory Texas, describing security at the facility as \u201cessentially Fort Knox.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Tesla\u2019s lawyers declined to comment after the hearing, citing the ongoing litigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brady\u2019s lawsuit also outlined a request for Tesla to preserve maps, photographs, videotapes and other information related to her case.<\/p>\n

Among those records is video of the incident captured by Tesla security cameras inside Gigafactory Texas. The Travis County Sheriff\u2019s Office has confirmed it obtained the video from Tesla days before the West Sixth Street shooting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Austin American-Statesman\u2019s request for the video and other records from the sheriff\u2019s office related to Brady\u2019s case was denied. The newspaper is appealing that denial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Hilliard Law, the firm representing Brady, previously said it\u00a0was working with Tesla attorneys to obtain the security video footage. In Thursday\u2019s hearing, it speculated Tesla doesn\u2019t want it to be viewed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want it to go to arbitration so no one else sees the video, because then it becomes confidential, and we want to make sure it stays public.\u201d attorney Bob\u00a0Hilliard said after the hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an interview last month, Brady said she \u201cwasn\u2019t really looking for a lawsuit\u201d against Tesla over the alleged assault but thought the company should have identified Diagne. Now she wonders if the people killed and wounded that morning would have made it home safely if the Austin automaker had provided his identity so she could bring charges.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think this needs to be brought out that this individual probably wouldn\u2019t have done this tragedy that he did\u2026 if something would have been done by Tesla,\u201d Brady said. \u201cIf they were to release the name or arrest him on the spot\u00a0\u2014 because we had deputies outside\u00a0\u2014 maybe all this could have been avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSeta Lyttle said Thursday she would spend more time reviewing both sides\u2019 arguments before reaching a decision about sending the case to arbitration.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tesla employee Lillian Brady speaks in March about her allegation that co-worker Ndiaga Diagne assaulted her at\u00a0Gigafactory Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,5454],"class_list":{"0":"post-247429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-saen_share"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}