A jury Monday ordered the founder of Bikram Yoga to pay more than $900,000 to a lawyer who said she was fired in retaliation for complaining about and investigating the harassment of women in his company.
A Los Angeles Superior Coury jury deliberated for a little more than a day before finding that Minakshi Jafa-Bodden was subjected to harassment, discrimination and retaliation by Bikram Choudhury.
In awarding her $924,554 in compensatory damages, the mostly female panel also found Choudhury acted with malice, triggering a second phase of trial set to begin Tuesday to determine if Jafa-Bodden should be awarded punitive damages.
Jafa-Bodden smiled broadly in the hallway after the verdict.
Choudhury, 69, was not present for the jury’s decision. His attorney, Robert Tafoya, said he was on his way to the courthouse, but was delayed in traffic.
Jafa-Bodden is a native of India who practiced law internationally after obtaining her law degree in Great Britain. Choudhury hired her in 2011 to handle legal matters for him and took steps to enable her to work in the United States, according to trial testimony.
Jafa-Bodden’s attorneys said that when their client expressed concern about a growing number of lawsuits by women complaining about their treatment by Choudhury, he told her to mind her own business.
Testimony during the trial showed Choudhury ordered young women to brush his hair and give him massages. Bikram Yoga’s former president and CEO, onetime White House lawyer Petra Starke, testified she saw a woman giving Choudhury oral sex during a business trip.
Jafa-Bodden sued Choudhury and his West Los Angeles-based Yoga College of India in June 2013.
Choudhury’s lawyers said Jafa-Bodden lost her job in 2013 because she did not tell her boss she wasn’t licensed to practice law in California. They also maintained she worked for a law firm and that neither Choudhury nor the college employed her, even though she testified he gave her office space, supplies and yoga college business cards.
Choudhury teaches the “hot yoga” technique in which sessions are conducted in temperatures that often are above 100 degrees.
–City News Service