Print edition: 
Two more former Scotch & Sirloin employees have filed a lawsuit against Scotch Investment Corp. Former managers Saprina Almosrati and Lindsey Moate filed a federal lawsuit last week over their dismissal from the restaurant for what they say are issues related to past lawsuits waitresses have filed against the company.
Almosrati and Moate claim in the suit they were fired for their unwillingness to lie or falsify documents related to those lawsuits.
In recent years, two former waitresses sued the company claiming they were fired or reassigned jobs after becoming pregnant.
A third employee filed a lawsuit after claiming she was fired for reporting the issue over the pregnancies to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission .
Part of that lawsuit included a claim that the Scotch has wage payment practices that are in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act .
The claim that money had been illegally deducted from waitresses' pay for cooks and advertising became certified as a collective action.
Each of the discrimination cases was settled and the company has paid the wage claims, says Randy Rathbun , the attorney who filed the lawsuits on behalf of those clients. He also is representing Almosrati and Moate in their suit against Scotch Investment.
"We've got a situation where they tried to cover up wrongdoing with lies," Rathbun says. "If they would have been honest from the start and not tried to get people to lie about it ... it would have been much less of a problem to them than it is now."
General manager Sonny Glennon says what Almosrati and Moate are claiming is wrong.
"I really don't think I've done anything," he said. "I didn't do anything except do what I had to do to run a business, and unfortunately, I'm going to have to listen to what other people have to say."
Glennon won't talk specifics.
"I'm not trying to defend myself to you or in the media," he says.
"I know I'm avoiding things, and I probably shouldn't say anything because it's just not fair. ... People are going to make their own opinions and say what they're going to say."
He says he wishes he could say more in general about the lawsuits that former employees have filed.
"I'd love to tell you the whole story."
Rathbun says he'd love that, too.
"If he wants to talk about it, I will immediately sign a paper to lift the gag order he's had me sign," Rathbun says. "I'll gladly sign anything he wants to allow me to talk about these past cases.
"He doesn't want to talk about these past cases, and that's why he made us sign a gag order."
Insured space
Father and son Jerry and Eric Johnsen are opening the first of several permanent branches for their Insurance Partners of Kansas .
They started the company, which represents 35 insurance carriers, in February and temporarily were located in the Equity Bank building at 7701 E. Kellogg.
They're now moving to permanent space at 707 N. Waco.
"This is the first of four branches we're going to have," Jerry Johnsen says. "We're going to put a branch in all quadrants of the city."
They plan to do that within two years.
Jerry Johnsen has been in the insurance business for 38 years. He says he likes the flexibility of being able to offer customers multiple policy carriers in order to find the best fit.
Brian Gaddis of BG Properties handled the deal.
You don't say
"What would have been falling off a log is now ... falling off a log with a half twist."
—Ron Coleman of Coleman Materials on the new normal for doing business in this economy
