Alleged discrimination at Boston's Liberty Hotel investigated by state agency
An independent state agency has launched an investigation into a Boston hotel for an alleged incident involving a same sex couple and a security guard last month.
On Tuesday, the attorney for the couple announced the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination had started a self-initiated investigation into the alleged actions against his clients.
WBZ-TV first reported the alleged incident at the Liberty Hotel last month during a Kentucky Derby watch party. That's when Liz Victor and her girlfriend Ansley Baker, said a security guard walked into the women's bathroom off the hotel's lobby, started banging on the stall doors, and shouted, "No men are allowed."
Liz Victor (left) and Ansley Baker.
CBS Boston
In our first interview on May 5, Baker said she was so rushed to get out of the stall she didn't have time to pull her shorts up all the way. The women claim once they were in the lobby of the hotel, the security guard asked for their IDs to prove they were women.
"It was my worst nightmare coming true," said Baker on Tuesday afternoon in her attorney's office in Boston. "This is the first time that something like this has escalated to the degree that it did."
Couple takes issue with hotel's statement
But the couple, and their attorney, take serious issue with the statement that was published by the hotel on the night of our original report. That statement said the security guard went in after, "...several women alerted security of two adults sharing a bathroom stall. The bathroom was cleared out as two adults in one stall are not permitted."
Victor and Baker vehemently denied they were ever in the same stall and have repeatedly stated the security guard never brought up that concern during the incident.
Within 12 hours after our first report aired, the Liberty Hotel published a second statement that revealed their initial internal investigation had ended, and the security guard has been suspended.
The couple's attorney alleged the hotel purposely put out a false statement that defamed his clients. "Liberty Hotel management made a decision to issue a false, demeaning, defamatory statement to attack the victims over what their guard had done," said attorney Lenny Kesten. "Rather than apologize or do something appropriate. He [security guard] became concerned there might be a male in the women's bathroom, so he decided to make sure there was a male in the women's bathroom by going in and banging on the door and yelling."
The state's investigation could result in fines or other punishments and could take several weeks to complete.
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