Representatives from Tolbert and Associates Law today (Tuesday, Dec. 9) announced that the firm has filed a lawsuit filed on behalf of Kimberly Barnett, an Afro-Latina transgender woman from Nebraska who alleges she was assaulted by a security guard at Hilton Dallas Lincoln Center in June while she was a registered guest at the hotel.
According to a press release from Tolbert and Associates, Barnett was a guest at the HiltonDallas Lincoln Centre while she was attending “Dallas Pride weekend and other events celebrating the LGBTQ community” from June 20-24. She alleges that she was “assaulted by a Hilton employee on June 24,” who identified themselves as hotel security.
In a statement provided to Dallas Voice, Barnett said, I checked into the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Center expecting what every guest expects: privacy, safety, and basic human dignity. Instead, one of the Hilton hotel’s security guards entered my room under false pretenses. At that moment, I felt completely exposed and afraid. I did not know what might happen next, and I did not feel safe.
“As a Black and Latina trans woman, I live with an added awareness of how quickly
situations can become dangerous when someone’s identity is discovered without
warning. At that moment, I feared for my physical safety,” she added. “I am here today because what happened to me should not happen to anyone. No guest at a Hilton or any other hotel should ever have trade their safety or dignity for a place to rest. Hilton has a responsibility to protect the people who stay with them. I want accountability, and I want change — not just for me, but so no one ever has to experience what I did.”
A representative for Tolbert and Associates Law said that Barnett chose to move forward with a lawsuit against the hotel chain only after attempts to negotiate with Hilton officials failed: “When our firm attempted conversations with Hilton to reveal systemic failures on their part, Hilton representatives repeatedly misgendered Ms. Barnett, and invalidated and dismissed her assault because of her being a trans woman.”
According to the plaintiff’s orginal petition,” which has been filed in the 192nd Judicial District Court in Dallas County, Barnett, who lives in Douglas County, Neb., checked into the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Center, at 5410 LBJ Freeway, on June 20 and was registered at the hotel through June 24. One June 24, at about 3:45 a.m., Barnett returned to the hotel after attending Pride events in Dallas and “attempted to valet her vehicle.” At that point, according to the lawsuit, a hotel employee identified as Jeremy Morton approached her in the lobby, identified himself as hotel security and offered to take her car keys to the valet service.
Barnett gave him her keys and then went to her room on the 20th floor. At about 4:15 a.m., Barnett alleges that someone knocked on her door, identifying themselves as security. When she opened the door, Morton was standing there holding a stack of folded bath towels. She said that when she told him that she had not asked for the towels, Morton “forced his way into the doorway, grabbed [Barnett] by her waist, fondled her breast and buttocks and proceeded to kiss her neck. Morton repeatedly stated, ‘I’m going to eat your pussy,’” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit notes that Barnett “experienced immediate fear due to Morton’s size, proximity and the fact that he had entered her room under false pretenses.” In addition, as a transgender woman, Barnett “faced an acute and immediate fear” that if Morton did not already know she was trans and then “became aware of her gender identity, he might react with hostility and violence.”
Although Barnett was able to push Morton back out of the room and lock the door, just minutes later he sent her, from his personal cell phone, “an unsolicited and explicit video of himself masturbating, with his penis fully exposed, to the point of ejaculation.” He followed that with more messages, including an offer to send her money through Cash App.
At 10 a.m. that morning, Barnett reported the assault to the hotel management, who called in Dallas Police. During their investigation, Dallas police confirmed that the lewd video and text messages did come from Morton’s personal cell phone. Barnett also later learned that Morton had had accessed hotel records to get her cell phone number and her room number.
Police filed charges against Morton for assault with offensive contact and unlawful electronic transmission of sexually explicit material.
Hotel officials told Barnett Morton had been suspended pending an internal investigation and that he later resigned his position.
The lawsuit alleges that in the weeks following the assault, Barnett developed “severe anxiety, sleep disturbance, hypervigilance and an inability to tolerate physical contact.” She has, as a result, begin seeing mental health professionals to address those issues, and that treatment is ongoing.
Barnett is asking for economic damages, mental anguish damages, treble damages, attorney fees, court costs and interest
— Tammye Nash