A group of four former Buffalo Exchange employees filed a lawsuit Tuesday against an owner of the company’s franchise stores in Colorado for sexual assault, harassment and creating a hostile work environment through other physical harassment and inappropriate comments.

The lawsuit also names the employees as representatives of a class of plaintiffs defined as “all employees of Buffalo Exchange who were subject to a hostile work environment based on sex at Buffalo Exchange Colorado’s stores in the six months preceding December 23, 2015.”

According to the complaint, the company allowed Todd Colletti, a co-founder of the company that operated Buffalo Exchange franchise stores in Colorado – outposts of a national chain of clothing resale shops — to create a hostile work environment based on sex and facilitated his actions. Employees’ complaints about Colletti to Buffalo Exchange went ignored or were forwarded to Colletti to handle, claims the lawsuit.

The named plaintiffs include Amanda Pruess, who worked at Buffalo Exchange on and off from 2010 to 2016, her sister Clara Pruess, employed from March to August 2016, Alex Myers, employed from 2011 to 2020 and Alyssa Detert, employed on and off from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2020.

The lawsuit claims Colletti hosted parties in the basement of a Buffalo Exchange store on Broadway in Denver at which he drank and did cocaine. He took nude photos of employees, their friends and others who went to the basement bar, coercing them with offers of drugs, alcohol or merchandise, says the complaint.

Colletti frequently groped employees while they worked, claims the lawsuit, and physically harassed them in other ways with tickling and “friction burns.” Myers also claims Colletti made racist, sexist and homophobic comments to him and made sexual comments about the appearances of other employees and customers.

In July last year, Buffalo Exchange severed its relationship with the Colorado franchise stores, revoking rights to the brand and name, and the chain’s stores in the state shut down. In a statement on behalf of Buffalo Exchange, company vice president Rebecca Block said “under no scenario will Colletti have a place anywhere in Buffalo Exchange ever again. The same goes for anyone who was in a position of authority who knew what he was doing and did not act.”

She apologized to victims and said the company had reached out to victim support organizations to provide resources for “everyone affected.”

Along with Buffalo Exchange, the case names Tatanka — the company with a franchise agreement to operate Colorado’s Buffalo Exchange stores – Forgotten Works, Watermelon Sugar and Scout Dry Goods Colorado as defendants. According to the lawsuit, Tatanka assigned some operating rights for the stores to Forgotten Works and Watermelon Sugar.

Colletti’s co-founders of Tatanka, Forgotten Works and Watermelon Sugar — Victor Cortes, Katherine Plache, and Justin Van Houten – are also named in the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, several owners of the Tatanka group of defendant companies started Scout Dry Goods Colorado — which has a separately operated branch in Omaha, Nebraska — after discrimination charges were filed against Buffalo Exchange and its corporate headquarters severed ties with the Colorado franchises, opening a clothing resale store in the space Buffalo Exchange occupied on Broadway. The lawsuit names Scout as “successor entity to the Tatanka Defendants” liable for all debts and judgments owed to the plaintiffs by the Tatanka group of defendants.

Ben Lebsack, a partner at Lowrey Parady Lebsack who represents the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit names Scout Dry Goods Colorado because it appears Plache, Cortes and Van Houten set up the store after they lost the ability to use the Buffalo Exchange brand. According to the complaint, Scout uses much of the same inventory and equipment that Buffalo Exchange used, and the owners of the Tatanka group of companies transferred a significant amount of their assets to Scout. Scout also accepts retail credits from Buffalo Exchange and rehired several employees, including supervisors, says the complaint.

“Justin, Victor and Katherine lost their ability to use the Buffalo brand, and instead of really taking accountability for their actions, they just set up shop under this new brand,” Lebsack said.

A statement provided Tuesday by Buffalo Exchange corporate says, “We cannot comment on a legal filing that we have not seen. The Colorado franchise stores were owned by Justin Van Houten, Kathy Plache and other investors. We did not have control over their business operations, hiring, employee documentation, or terminations, including access to employee records or paperwork such as exit interviews. We were not the employer of any of the individuals asserting claims.”

Lebsack challenged Buffalo Exchange’s assertion they were not the plaintiffs’ employer and did not have control over the Colorado franchises. He called the franchise relationship between Buffalo Exchange and the Colorado franchise owners “unusual” because the company doesn’t have other franchise relationships in the state, and the companies that operated Buffalo Exchange’s Colorado franchises had common elements such as shared training materials. 

“I think that they are the employer, and they aided and abetted the harassment,” he said.