The state Bureau of Labor and Industries has ordered Michael Ruppert, publisher of From the Wilderness magazine, and his company to pay a $125,000 for mental and emotional suffering and $2,713 in lost wages to a former employee for workplace harassment and retaliation.



The bureau said that amid a continuing pattern of harassment that began shortly after Lindsay Gerken was hired by From the Wilderness Inc., formerly based in Ashland, Ruppert came to Gerken's office door "wearing only his underwear and a smile." When Gerken declined Rupert's explicit invitation to engage in a sexual relationship, the bureau said, she was terminated the following week.



"BOLI will not allow employers to ignore fundamental protections for workers rights," said Brad Avakian, the state labor commissioner. "Sexual harassment of this magnitude is a brazen violation of the law."



At the time the harassment and retaliation occurred, Lindsay Gerken was 25 years old and just beginning her professional career, the bureau said. It said Michael Ruppert was in his mid-50s and a celebrity investigative journalist in the literary community surrounding "peak oil" and sustainability.



