A lawsuit accuses the managing director of a Fresno, California, law firm of taking firm employees to a strip club, where he simulated oral sex, paid for alcohol with a corporate credit card and encouraged an associate to place dollar bills in strippers’ panties.
The now-former associate, Michelle Ritchie, is the plaintiff in the July 1 sexual-harassment lawsuit. She says the incident happened after a Dec. 10, 2021, Christmas party at the workers’ compensation defense firm Yrulegui & Roberts in Fresno, California.
The party continued at a sports bar at the invitation of partner and Fresno managing director Joseph Yrulegui, according to the lawsuit. After several hours at the sports bar, Yrulegui “instructed” several employees to take Uber or Lyft to the strip club City Lights, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit says Yrulegui intentionally provided excessive alcohol to Ritchie “and subjected her to unwanted sexual contact by proxy. He encouraged and paid for a lap dance with a stripper and subjected her to his offensive simulated sexual acts with the various strippers. This was unwanted and done for the purposes of sexually gratifying Yrulegui, humiliating plaintiff and sexual grooming. Further, the conduct was done in the presence of plaintiff’s co-employees which additionally damaged plaintiff’s future relationships with the co-employees.”
Ritchie “had never been to a strip club before and did not realize how tacky and degrading it was for the women working there, herself...
"Breaking news: Sri Lanka has been removed from the United Nations," says superimposed Sinhala-language text on a Facebook graphic shared on September 25, 2026 The graphic also features a photo of...