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A group of former Buffalo Exchange employees have filed a class action lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and other abuse at the hands of a co-owner of the national resale chain’s Colorado stores.
In the lawsuit, filed May 11 in Denver County District Court, the four lead plaintiffs describe a culture of verbal and physical harassment — and even incidents of sexual assault — perpetrated by franchise owner Todd Colletti.
Many of the allegations in the lawsuit first came to light last year, when a group of employees created the anonymous Instagram account @buffalo.in.the.room, where they shared their claims of Colletti’s harassment.
Since then, Buffalo Exchange closed all of its Colorado stores and released an open letter expressing support for employees at those locations.
The lawsuit names Colletti, along with Justin Van Houten, Victor Cortes and Katherine Plache as defendants. Colletti was, with the other three defendants, a co-owner of Tatanka Inc., Forgotten Works LLC and Watermelon Sugar LLC — companies which operated the Colorado Buffalo Exchange stores through a franchise agreement that dates back to 1998 — until 2020. Those three companies were also named as defendants on the lawsuit, as well as Dry Scout Goods Colorado LLC — which operates the successors to Buffalo Exchange’s Colorado locations — as well as Arizona-based Buffalo Exchange LTD itself.
In the lawsuit, plaintiffs Alyssa Detert, Alex Myers, Amanda Preuss and Clara Preuss say Colletti, who was described as “the primary manager of the Colorado stores” converted the basement of Buffalo Exchange’s store on Broadway in Denver into a bar, where they claim he used hosted parties, used “a lot of cocaine,” and eventually added a darkroom for photograph development.
The plaintiffs allege Colletti used the darkroom to take “naked photographs of his employees, their friends, and other people who found their way to the basement bar.
“He goaded these people into removing their clothes by offering drugs, alcohol, or merchandise,” the lawsuit claims. “Mr. Colletti held a position of power over these people, direct financial power over his employees, and social influential power over all of them.”
The lawsuit describes allegations that Colletti sexually assaulted and harassed, and verbally abused, multiple store employees including the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs also allege the managers and owners of the Colorado stores, as well as the owners of Buffalo Exchange itself, were long aware of Colletti’s conduct, describing multiple meetings on the subject.
“Despite receiving complaints and meeting about them, Buffalo Exchange did nothing to correct Mr. Colletti’s behavior,” the lawsuit claims. “The owners of these entities heard complaints and stories about Mr. Colletti’s behavior and saw firsthand much of that behavior at parties in the basement of Buffalo Exchange’s Denver store. But Defendants continued to empower Mr. Colletti with managerial responsibility over the Colorado stores and encourage his behavior by allowing him to operate an after-hours bar out of the basement of the Denver store.”
The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial and economic damages including unpaid wages, non-economic damages including for physical and mental pain and suffering, inconvenience, emotional stress, humiliation, embarrassment and impairment of quality of life, physical impairment damages and punitive damages.
Were you or someone you know an employee at a Buffalo Exchange store in Colorado who witnessed or experienced any of the misconduct described in this lawsuit? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiffs are represented by J. Bennett Lebsack, Mary Jo Lowrey and Sara Maeglin of Lowrey Parady Lebsack LLC.
The Colorado Buffalo Exchange Sexual Harassment Class Action Lawsuit is Alyssa Detert, Alex Myers, Amanda Pruess, Clara Pruess, and those similarly situated, v. Buffalo Exchange LTD, Todd Colletti, Forgotten Works LLC, Watermelon Sugar LLC, Tatanka Inc., Scout Dry Goods LLC, Justin Van Houten, Victor Cortes and Katherine Planche, in Denver County District Court in Colorado.
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