The Justice Department announced today that Chester Gordon Whitescarver and his wife, Betsy Whitescarver, who have owned and managed rental properties in and around Russellville, Kentucky, have agreed to pay $230,000 to resolve a lawsuit alleging that they violated the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The department’s lawsuit alleged that Gordon Whitescarver has sexually harassed female tenants since at least 2012 and that Betsy Whitescarver was on notice of sexual harassment allegations but took no action to stop his sexually harassing behavior.

Under the consent decree entered by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, the Whitescarvers must pay $220,000 to 11 women who are current or former tenants harmed by the Whitescarvers’ discriminatory conduct, and must pay a $10,000 civil penalty to the United States. The Whitescarvers must also take steps to dismiss any pending eviction actions against the victims, vacate any adverse judgments they obtained against the victims, and take steps to repair the credit of any affected victim. The consent decree also bars future discrimination, permanently bars the Whitescarvers from property management, mandates Fair Housing Act training, and requires monitoring and reporting regarding property management activities.

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