A former employee at Patriot Subaru in Saco is suing the car dealership, saying she was sexually harassed, unfairly demoted and eventually forced to resign from her position. 

In a lawsuit filed March 26 in the U.S. District Court of Maine, Christine Wright, of Shapleigh, alleges that dealership General Manager David Shoemaker made lewd and inappropriate remarks to her, including repeated sexual advances and objectifying comments about her appearance and those of other women.

Much of the alleged harassment happened in front of other managers or human resources employees, but the company failed to act on Wright’s concerns, the lawsuit says.

Shoemaker said in an email Monday that he does not believe the lawsuit has any merit and declined to comment further. A spokesperson for Patriot Subaru declined to comment on the allegations.

Wright brought the case to the Maine Human Rights Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In February, both bodies gave her permission to pursue the matter in court.

Wright’s lawyer, Michael Varraso, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Wright was hired at Patriot Subaru in November 2023 as the company’s IT manager. According to the lawsuit, the harassment began shortly after, when Shoemaker allegedly told her that he “typically sleeps with all the women he hires.” Wright made it clear that his advances were not welcome, but Shoemaker continued and escalated the sexually harassing behavior, according to the lawsuit.

Wright v. Patriot Subaru of Saco by Maine Trust For Local News

Shoemaker routinely harassed Wright about her body, commenting on her weight and the size of her breasts, and made frequent remarks about the breasts and buttocks of female clients, and vendors, the lawsuit alleges. He later allegedly suggested to her that Patriot’s new location should only hire “attractive women” and again asserted that “all women at the Company have sex with him eventually.”

“It was clear that Shoemaker saw women as nothing more than sexual objects and seemed to enjoy displaying this attitude publicly to Ms. Wright,” the lawsuit says.

In early 2024, Wright was moved to a sales manager position, increasing the amount of time she was spending in the Patriot Subaru office and leading to more frequent harassment, according to the lawsuit.

By that point, Wright said she had begun to cry at work frequently because of the harassment. Once, when Shoemaker noticed her crying, he allegedly told her, “Wow, I finally got to make you cry. I love when I make women cry.”

The lawsuit says the harassment came to a head in mid-October 2024. After Wright told Shoemaker she “would never sleep with him,” he “suddenly” told her that if she wanted to continue working for Patriot Subaru, she would have to take a demotion and a 50% pay cut.

“This was clearly a discriminatory and retaliatory reaction to Ms. Wright’s protected actions,” the lawsuit states.

The following month, after having been demoted, Wright felt she was being pushed out of the company and resigned. The lawsuit describes her departure as a wrongful termination, saying that any reasonable person in her position would have found the working conditions intolerable.

Wright is seeking damages for lost wages and emotional distress, and to get her job back. She has requested a jury trial.