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Women speak out on alleged sexual assault, harassment by Mattress Factory museum staff

PITTSBURGH — Four women are speaking to Channel 11 about what they describe as the mishandling of several sexual assault and harassment complaints by the Mattress Factory museum's management staff and board of directors.

The women accuse a former male employee of a wide range of sexual assaults including rape and harassment in the workplace.

Kaylin Carder, Nicole Hall, Anna-Lena Kempen and Katie Urich said their complaints were not properly handled and that they were retaliated against for speaking up.

"He would find ways to be alone with me and get close to me, rub up against me, smell my hair, touch me," Kempen said.

She said four other women came forward after she did, to accuse the same man of sexual harassment and assault.

"Some of them were complaining about emotional and physical abuse. Some of them were complaining about rape," Kempen said.

These women said the museum's director, Michael Olijnyk, conducted an 11-week-long investigation that ended with the man going to one day of sexual harassment training.

After that, 18 employees signed a letter saying they were disappointed with how the museum had handled the accusations. They gave the letter to Olijnyk.

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"He grabbed it and put it in his bag and said, 'This wasn't a situation and now you're really turning it into quite a situation,'" Urich said.

The women have now filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board and have hired a lawyer, who is looking at other legal avenues.

"We all felt very unsafe. It became very apparent in that moment that our safety was not a concern," Carder said.

Three of the women felt forced to quit their jobs because of retaliation.

The Mattress Factory board of directors released a previous statement to Channel 11 saying it had placed its executive director on leave and is cooperating fully with the investigation by the National Labor Relations Board.

"I feel like I was essentially forced out of my job so I don't think I have much choice if I wanted to progress in my career because they retaliated against me for being vocal about this," Hall said.

The museum's board of directors told Channel 11 it has launched an internal investigation into the matter.

Some of the museum's funding, including an $82,000 grant of taxpayer money, is now on hold because of the allegations.