(Editor's note: This story has been corrected. An earlier version incorrectly identified Barry Aycock as a defendant. The Record regrets the reporting error).
ST LOUIS - A Dexter woman sued AgXplore and three AgXplore executives in St. Louis federal court, citing accusations of civil rights violations, according to documents filed on March 12.
Individual defendants include Tim Gutwein, Jon Hagler and Gunther Kreps, according to the suit filed March 12.
Plaintiff Misti McBride was hired by the defendant in 2011 as the director of marketing. She reported to Barry Aycock, company owner at the time, and Gutwein, company VP at the time.
McBride says that in the seven years before Aycock sold AgXplore to Gutwein that she had a stellar work history and a long list of accomplishments. She alleges that gender discriminatory behaviors against women and a hostile work environment for women began when Gutwein took over operations.
Gutwein is accused of demoting the plaintiff from her leadership role without grounds and paying the male employee who took her responsibilities far more than she was ever paid.
AgXplore executives are accused of creating a hostile work environment in retaliation to McBride reporting the incident to leadership.
McBride was terminated in January 2020 after she refused to sign the sexual harassment policy in the new AgXplore employee handbook, expressing concern that the company had not followed the policy at all in her sexual harassment case against a sales manager.
The defendants are sued for one count of creating a hostile work environment, one count of retaliation, one count of defamation.
McBride is represented by Sedey Harper Westhoff PC of St. Louis and Case + Sedey LLC of Chicago.