Two Ames, Iowa businesses sued in discrimination lawsuit

by Sondra Wilson.  [email protected].  Originally posted 11/9/2022. Last updated 8/15/2024

Contents of article:

i. I want this very serious situation to be resolved peaceably

ii. I began volunteering at Reliable Street’s open mics; Board Members learned about my skill sets

iii. Reliable Street asked me to help manage their community garden, Lockwood Café offered me 50% discounts

iv. After 6 months, Reliable Street breached our agreement, citing unspecified, harmful complaints

v. I filed a discrimination complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission; 5 individuals associated with the businesses retaliated against me via submitting horribly-damaging, false testimonies and a falsified document to the Commission

vi. Redacted evidence

vii. When the Defendants harmed me, they also harmed other peoples’ legacies

viii. Legal filings to date

ix. Our first hearing was August 12, 2024; awaiting Judge Currie’s order

x. Donations to help with my legal help are very much appreciated

 

i. I want this very serious situation to be resolved peaceably

      I take absolutely no joy in suing two beloved Ames, Iowa businesses, Lockwood Café (“Lockwood”) and nonprofit Reliable Street Inc (“Reliable”), but what was done to me by a handful of individuals from within these two organizations was in fact predatory, and needs to be taken seriously by the Ames community. The seven named defendants in this lawsuit include the two businesses and the five tortfeasors who retaliated against me in 2022 because I filed a discrimination complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission (“ICRC”) against the two businesses and against the property owner, Love Club LLC.

     Before I tell my story and then share some of the most crucial evidence which proves my case, I want to say that it is not my goal for people to boycott these businesses based on what these individuals did. I also want to tell you why I am saying this, because it is based on what I believe. I believe we are spiritual beings who learn important lessons throughout our lives. Some lessons are much harder than others. When I see people do something terrible, instead of condemning them, I am thankful that they taught me this hard lesson instead of me having taught them. I pity them. This group of individuals performed the type of retaliation scheme I would expect from a group of sophomoric high schoolers. I hope that, through the civil action I am taking, they learn their lesson, move on and have successful lives, and they never intentionally hurt anyone ever again. They have families to support, and their children do not deserve for the businesses that put food in their mouths to be boycotted. I want that to be known.

     That said, assuming their attorney is representing his clients accurately, this group of individuals is actively conspiring to continue to cause severe harm to me. Instead of coming forward and trying to make things right, through their attorney, they are doubling down in their filings with false accusations against me, and trying to get their attorney’s fees assigned to me, the person they knowingly and willingly, maliciously harmed. They are trying to get my lawsuit dismissed prior to evidence being presented, and appear actively poised to countersue me if they are able to convince the judge to rule in favor of the popular businesses instead of siding with the self-represented trans woman. This is a concern to me, especially within the currently political climate we are in. My hope is that  the Judge does not take the bait, and instead decides to let the case move forward so that I have the opportunity to present the evidence, some of which is posted below. 

      Our first court hearing was on Monday, August 12 at 1:30 pm. A description Businesses should not be allowed to retaliate against minorities for filing civil rights complaints, and punish victims for coming forward.

 

ii. I began volunteering at Reliable Street’s open mics; Board Members learned about my skill sets:

    My boyfriend and I were regular customers of Lockwood Café located in west Ames, Iowa in 2021. We got along well with the staff including management of both organizations. In fall 2021, at the request of Reliable Street’s President at the first open mic I attended, I began regularly volunteering to help set up their weekly open mics and clean up afterward. I’m a musician, so I enjoyed the opportunity to be part of the local arts scene in this way.

    Lockwood and Reliable’s staff, over time, became aware I founded Wild Willpower PAC because I hand out business cards when I meet people, and of course people tend to ask each other what we do for a living. When this happens, I often show people a book I helped produce, More Valuable Than Gold, alongside my teacher, former US Army wilderness survival instructor Richard Lonewolf. I studied and documented alongside Lonewolf for more than a decade, assisting with photography, graphic design, formatting and editing publications, and I built his website. In turn I learned a plethora of uses for wild plants, gardening techniques, and amazing Old World wilderness survival skills and cultural knowledge about his Cherokee, Lakota, and Northern Cheyenne ancestries. It was a great honor to have the opportunity to do all this, and in working with Lonewolf, I realized there were likely other indigenous teachers who were not being lifted up and supported within from within the system. That was the primary reasons I founded Wild Willpower – to sponsor indigenous teachers from around world and hire teams to document their skills.

 

iii. Reliable Street asked me to help manage their community garden, Lockwood Café offered me 50% discounts:

   Reliable Street Inc’s President and Vice President knew about the years of experience I had learning and practicing these skills, and that I was in the process of developing gardening kits. In fall 2021 I asked the Vice President of Reliable Street, who was also the co-owner of Lockwood Café, about the garden on the property that was overgrown with weeds and in desperate need of care.  I lived only a couple blocks away, and asked if they wanted help with it.

   Soon after, Reliable Street Inc’s President and Vice President asked if I would restore and help manage the community garden alongside the local high school gardening club “SHEPH”, whose previous class had set up the garden, but were not able to care for it as much as needed due to the fact that the businesses are located on the edge of town. I was really happy and honored that they asked me to do this, and having access to soil and land to work with meant a lot to me because I missed (and still miss) living in the mountains. It was a great opportunity. After looking out at the 6-7′ high weeds surrounding the garden, I asked everyone involved about installing native tallgrass prairie around it to help keep weeds out and to beautify the space. Everyone responded enthusiastically, and after sending a proposal to Reliable Street’s President, she approved the project and gave me permission to get started. Everyone knew that both these projects would involve working on them throughout the coming year. I have multiple emails from Reliable Street’s President which can be used to verify this.

 

iv. After 6 months, Reliable Street breached our agreement, citing unspecified, harmful complaints:

   After performing approximately 6 months working on the two projects and volunteering at open mics, I was kept under the impression that everyone involved was happy with me and the work I was doing. You can view documentation of some of my volunteerism here. Up until March 31, 2022 (Transgender Day of Visibility), I was kept under the impression that the people I would later find out brutally attacked me from behind the scenes, were my friends. It came as a rather devastating shock when on March 31, the President and Vice President of Reliable Street confronted me about a complaint against me that I had been “violating a woman’s space”. 

    It sounded like I had been accused of workplace harassment, which very much concerned me. If something I was doing was making someone feel uncomfortable, I want to know what I did so that I never do it again. I asked what I did which caused the complaint, but was not told because they said they needed to “protect the identity of the person who complained”. Then they changed the story, saying it was “multiple people”. I told them this felt really unfair: a non-transgender woman complained about a transgender woman “violating her space”, and a presumption of guilt was made about me and I was punished. 

    After days of racking my brain trying to figure out what I may have done to cause the complaints, I eventually concluded that it looked like I was actually being gaslighted. This is why they didn’t’ give me any specifics: there were no specifics to give. It will become more evident that this was the case as the story moves forward, just as it became more clear to me over time following this initial incident.

    No specific actions I performed which merited the complaint were ever told to me. I was kicked me off the property after I had just spent approximately twenty hours per week for six months restoring their overgrown and dilapidated front section of the property. It was originally agreed by Reliable Street that I would be helping to manage these projects throughout the 2022 growing seasons, but now, without warning, they had breached our agreements. Although many people are quick to point out that we did not have a contract, we did in fact have very specific agreements that the parties involved had agreed to. In law, a breach of an oral agreement is treated in the same manner as a breach of contract. This is why my lawsuit alleges a type of tort called promissory estoppel, also known as breach of agreement. It is possible that in the future, following an evaluation, a contract may have eventually been agreed upon. Unfortunately, due to defamatory statements made against me by an unknown person(s), such arrangement would never come to pass. At the very least Reliable Street should have offered to reimburse me for my time. After all, they were kicking me off the property based on a very harmful allegation, without explanation or opportunity for appeal.

    As time moved forward, I realized how used, exploited, discriminated against, and mistreated I really felt by all this. Not only that, I was now leaving the space with horrible allegations hanging over my head all throughout the Ames art scene. Reliable Street and Lockwood Café are some of the most popular, hip places in town, and anyone who attended open mics or who knew of my role with regard to the garden or prairie restoration would now be told, “Sondra was kicked off the property for harassing women.” As a transgender woman who already faces discrimination and negative presumptions about my character, this was a terrible reputation to now unfairly have. What makes the situation worse is that Lockwood and Reliable are both very popular with the LGBT+ community. They openly show support, so the allegations against me have even brought my character into severe doubt within my own community.

 

v. I filed a discrimination complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission; 5 individuals associated with the businesses retaliated against me via submitting horribly-damaging, false testimonies and a falsified document to the Commission:

    First I contacted the Better Business Bureau to see if they could help the businesses come up with a better protocol for handling internal complaints, however they told me that it sounded like I had been discriminated against, and they urged me to contact the Iowa Civil Rights Commission (“ICRC”). Multiple local defamation attorneys told me the same thing – to start by filing with the ICRC. When I called the ICRC, the receptionist urged me to file a complaint, and told me that usually complaints end up in mediation. This is exactly what I wanted, because I wanted to learn what happened and why someone had complained. I also wanted reimbursed for my labor I would not have performed had I known the businesses were going to breach our agreements based on defamatory statements, and that I would be mistreated in this way.

    After writing to my friends from the space to let them know what happened, and that I really didn’t know what this was about, one of the people I had previously perceived to a friend informed me that it was she, in fact, who had complained. I thought about our interactions, and there was nothing which merited her complaint or the action taken against me. After writing a letter to Lockwood Café and Reliable Street, then not hearing back, I filed a complaint with the ICRC in late April 2022.

    At the beginning of August, I received a notice from the ICRC that they would not be investigating my case. Within their evaluation, I learned that two people from Reliable Street, the President and a frequently featured artist who was friends with the other Defendants, submitted approximately ten extremely damaging, false statements about me to the ICRC. Their lies ranged from smaller accusations, including allegations that there was no agreement, and that I was just doing unsolicited work around the property without permission (even though I have emails and text messages which prove otherwise), to much larger, predatory accusations: allegations that I was “stalking and harassing” a Lockwood Café employee, harassing Lockwood Cafe’s staff, and saying racist and anti-LGBT+ comments. Apparently in retaliation for me filing a legitimate complaint of discrimination, instead of coming to the table and talking through things, a group of what I would later find out was five individuals, conspired together to send a falsified document alongside false testimonies to the ICRC. By doing so, these statements about me were also entered into the public record, and are now available to the public upon request. At first I believed that the co-owner of Lockwood/VP of Reliable was caught in the middle and potentially manipulated by the other Defendants, however, as the case has moved forward – assuming their attorney has kept all parties apprised of my filings – I now must conclude that she is aware of the falsified document and the lies associated with it, and that she, too – for whatever reason – used the false allegations as an excuse to remove me from the property.

     After ordering a copy of the case file from the ICRC, I learning about the falsified document and false testimonies, I filed a lawsuit against the five individuals and the two businesses on December 26, 2023.

    Also, I know how absurd this sounds. Anyone who has been a customer at Lockwood Café has met their kind staff and eaten their amazing food, and anyone who has attended any of Reliable Street’s community events or art gallery would probably at first assume the best of them, and that they would never harm anyone. Additionally, both businesses are openly supportive of the LGBT+ community, so the fact that they barred me from the community space has cast doubt upon my character within the LGBT+ community. Note that this was a handful of people – 5 individuals – whose actions violate everything the two organizations appear to stand for. I am appreciative to anyone in the community who reads this article, and takes the time to review the evidence below, because it is not okay that the predatory actions against me are being swept under the rug. Personally, I would like to see the President and Vice President step down or be removed from their positions within Reliable Street, and for the Lockwood employee who still works there, who appears to be the one who created the falsified document, to be fired. 

    If I did not possess hard evidence of these peoples’ predatory actions (several pieces of evidence posted below), I would not dare be so bold as to make these seemingly-outrageous claims or to file suit. There have been several filings on this case so far, both by the Defendants and myself. Currently, instead of coming to the table, admitting what they did was wrong, and trying to make things right, they are trying to convince the judge to dismiss the case and get their attorney’s fees assigned to me without evidence ever be presented (they’re trying to get it dismissed before the discovery phase of the proceedings). 

 

vi. Redacted Evidence:

      There were approximately 10 extremely damaging lies written about me by the defendants. These ranged from lesser lies used to attack my character in the eyes of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission so that the bigger, more malicious lies – accusations of stalking, harassment, racism, and being anti-LGBT+ (yes, one of the defendants actually accused me of being anti-LGBT+) given in tandem with a falsified document – would be believed. Their scheme appeared to have worked, because the Iowa Civil Rights Commission chose not to investigate.

President’s lie about the flier:

    Here is an example of a smaller lie by Reliable Street’s President, stating that I made a flier for the open mic without ever asking if they wanted that, followed by text messages with this same person from 2021 when she not only stated that she wanted a flier, but also she gave directions on how she wanted it improved. Reliable Street then posted it on their Facebook wall. I realize how petty and sad it is that I have to post all this online, but honestly my honor and reputation are at stake. 

Her statement to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission:

 

Text messages between me and her from 2021 which proves she lied about the flier:

 

The Falsified Document:

What Lockwood Cafe’s co-owner (who was also the VP of Reliable St) sent to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission:

      Here you will see Jane Doe(s) rearranged a Discord thread between myself and the Lockwood Café employee I was falsely accused of stalking. This appears to have been done in retaliation for me filing a civil rights complaint against the businesses, and based on multiple false testimonies sent to the Commission, it is apparent that likely all five individuals knew about this document, and used it as part of a fraud scheme to convince the Iowa Civil Rights Commission not to investigate, and to retaliate against me for coming forward. Defendants knew that, in the current political culture we live in, most people would be likely to side with the non-transgender woman after she accused me of “stalking and harassing” her. It disgusts me that this predatory act was made against me from within a business and community space which portrays itself as a safe community space for LGBT+ people.

 

My letter to the employee (before I realized I was being gaslighted), followed by her response – this is the unmodified, redacted document they tampered with:

    As you can see, our messages were re-arranged by at least one of the Defendants in a manner so as to convince the ICRC that she asked me to stop contacting her, and I continued to do so. As you can see from the original message, she admits she never said anything to me and that the complaint was not handled properly. Here are some of the last text messages I received from this same Lockwood employee I was accused of “stalking and harassing” shortly before I was barred from the property due to an explanation which didn’t add up:

           

 Several more pieces of evidence to expose other lies will be posted soon. 8/15/24.

 

vii. When the Defendants harmed me, they harmed other peoples’ legacies:

       I have worked diligently for many years toward developing Wild Willpower PAC into an organization that helps to make the life’s work of phenomenal teachers, several of whom have passed away since the time I had the opportunity to work alongside them, remembered and passed on to generations to come. Their life’s work is now reflected in my work, especially these service projects by Wild Willpower. I intend to hire a team to make the legal self-help website I spent years developing, www.ReUniteTheStates.org, into a tool that can be used in classrooms to accelerate widespread knowledge of and appreciation for civil rights because the tools within can help resolve severe conflicts peaceably and legally, without violence, through due process. I also intend to finish building the Wild Living Skills Database & Smartphone App, and to hire film crews to document alongside indigenous teachers to broadcast via the website.

       The first person who began to teach me about law was SJSU Professor Emeritus Frank Schiavo, who passed away on my birthday, January 26, in 2010. I have never had time to write about what I learned from him in-depth, however one day I would like to. When I first began building Wild Willpower, it was largely in part to continue Frank’s work. He inspired me, and his message is imbued into the framework of this organization.

       After Frank passed away, a dear friend of mine who was also transgender Ashawna Hailey began providing me approximately $3,000 per month for two or three months as I began to develop Wild Willpower. She On October 14, 2011, she passed away. Ashawna believed in Wild Willpower. This organization is imbued as part of her legacy.

       After Ashawna passed, a wonderful and fun gay couple who I had recently met in Fairfax, CA, TICOR and Bill, essentially adopted me. This was during a period of time when I was still estranged from friends and family, and afraid to return to Iowa due to discrimination, harassment, false charges against me by local government officials in my home state, Iowa, back in 2006 and 2006. A co-founder of the California Lichen Society, Bill taught me decades of knowledge about lichen biology, identification, and uses. I have photos of hundreds of various species of lichens and mushrooms, all identified to the species, for use in developing the Wild Living Skills Database & Smartphone App. I volunteered to help tend the California Lichen Society booth on multiple occasions over the years, usually at the annual Mycological Society of San Francisco’s annual “fungus fair“. Bill and TICOR bent over backwards to help me get back on my feet following Frank and Ashawna’s death. They understood the adversity I faced as a trans woman because they had experienced similar types of discrimination throughout their lives. Grandpa Bill passed away on April 28 this year. His life’s work is also imbued into Wild Willpower.

       Another great teacher I had the rare honor of learning alongside prior to his passing in 2009 was Frank Cook. He and I had planned to teach together at an event in 2010, which never came to pass. I was at Ashawna’s place in Kauai, Hawaii at the time I heard the news. I wailed in tears throughout the valley I was living in. His work and the inspiration he gave me is imbued into Wild Willpower.

    This is the main reason I’m transferring to ISU this year as an entrepreneurship major – to get Wild Willpower PAC lifted off the ground. I’m also running for Iowa Governor in 2026. The heinous actions the defendants falsely accused me of not only compromise my legacy, they compromise the life’s work of the people in my life who are most dear to me, and whose legacies I am here to help protect and pass on to future generations through my work. A large reason for this lawsuit is to clear my name, but also to punish the defendants for what they did. Businesses should not be able to get away with retaliating against victims of discrimination who choose to come forward.

 

viii. Legal filings to date:

     More filing will be uploaded soon.

REDACTED Wilson v Reliable St et al – Am Pet_Redacted – After filing a much shorter petition to initiate the lawsuit on December 5, 2023, the defendants and I made numerous filings back and forth. 

Jul 5 Defendants’ motion to dismiss_Redacted –

July 30 my RESISTANCE to Defendants’ motion to dismiss_Redacted –

 

ix. Our first hearing was August 12, 2024; awaiting Judge’s order:

    It was the first time I’ve seen most of the defendants in a couple years, so it was just a sad and somber feeling.
    Part of the case was about whether or not, as a volunteer, I should be protected against discrimination. The Judge seemed like she was genuinely concerned. I mentioned a case ruling, Finkle v Howard County Md, where police officer Tomi Boone Finkle worked for years for the force, retired, transitioned to female, began volunteering there, and was terminated as a volunteer. In that instance, although she was a volunteer, the court did rule she qualified as protected from discrimination under Title VII. Judge Currie told me to print out that ruling and file it with the court by Friday at 4:30. It sounded to me like if she saw some precedents with regard to legal protections for volunteers, she might be willing to let the case move forward. I’m going to the law library tomorrow to get a copy of that ruling and some related rulings, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
    Also regarding the “are volunteers protected against discrimination” question, I pointed out that Iowa courts recognize the “spirit of the law doctrine”, citing Case v. Olson. “The court should give effect to the spirit of the law rather than the letter, especially so where adherence to the letter would result in absurdity, or injustice, or would lead to contradiction, or would defeat the plain purpose of the act…” I explained that, although the Iowa Civil Rights Act does not currently protect volunteers, that is only due to the fact that Iowa’s Legislature neglected to include such protections in the act. The spirit of the Act demands protection. I gave an example wherein Abraham Lincoln protected a Potawatomi man who came to the barracks. 6 of Lincoln’s men wanted to kill him, thinking him a spy. Lincoln got between the men and the Potawatomi man, rose up, and knocked their muskets into the air. His men backed down after a few heated seconds. “That man wasn’t an employee, and he was given protection,” I pointed out. The spirit of the law demands protection.
    The defendants, in their filings, accused me of harassing them since the time of their incident. I filed a motion to estop, which means that if the court rules in my favor for that motion, the Defendants will be estopped, or stopped, from stating that at any future point in the proceedings. I believe they were trying to set up a countersuit if they got it dismissed. An example that they gave was “trying to get this moved forward into the discovery phase”. I pointed out that, as written in my petition, I sent them a letter letting them know why their decision was not fair, and gave about 6 sentences wherein I gave examples of some of the things that I wrote in the letter, which was courteous and solution-oriented. I requested mediation. They didn’t respond, and so I filed with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission; the end result of a Commission filing is usually supposed to be mediation – talking through things and resolving conflicts. Seeking mediation isn’t harassment.
    I explained that I talked to friends and members of my congregation about it because I was trying to find help from an attorney or with attorney’s fees, or in finding a journalist, and that none of those acts constitute harassment. They accused me of “slandering” their names around town, however I pointed out that talking with friends in confidence does not qualify as slander when what is being communicated is the truth. The Iowa Constitution and defamation case in general do not consider “truth” defamation. Truth is protected. I have never attempted to contact them since that first letter I sent, and I saw one of them at the bar a few weeks ago. I didn’t say anything to them or stare. I focused on the performances. I have never harassed the defendants. Their attorney did not argue that point, so I presume Judge Currie is poised to grant my motion.
    I also filed a motion to estop the Defendants from saying that the co-owner of Lockwood Café, who was also the Vice President of Reliable Street, was merely “the Owner of Lockwood Café”. I moved to estop them from saying that a mutual friend with the other defendants, who was also a frequently-showcased artist in Reliable Street’s art gallery was merely “a customer of Lockwood Café who observed Sondra do all these bad things” (essentially).
Judge Currie asked their attorney why the defendants didn’t mention these things in their filings, and he said because they thought it was a moot point. So they didn’t really argue against it.
    I think everyone involved is looking forward to getting this whole thing behind us.

 

x. Donations to help with my legal help are very much appreciated:

     To anyone reading this, this lawsuit has only begun, and I still have a great deal of work to do – not only for this case, but also for the related suit against the State of Iowa and Kim Reynolds for Iowa. There are four ways in which you can help, and I would be very grateful for your doing so:

  • Share this article and/or the lawsuit against the State of Iowa and Kim Reynolds for Iowa along with the hashtag #JusticeForSondra.
  • Donate toward my legal funds (it is going to require a great deal of time and energy to write motions, perform research, filing fees, etc.
  • I am seeking journalist(s) and/or media outlets to share my story.  Thus far I have had no media coverage.  
  • Whatever else you can think of to help.  Please contact [email protected].

 

 

 

    I hope none of my friends take this personally, but I know this case is very close to home, and is very hurtful for everyone in the community. Unfortunately it has left me feeling very alone. I do appreciate everyone who has met with me, listened to what happened, and shown they’ve cared. This has been so traumatizing that I know it is overwhelming for people because I’m just focused on trying to get justice now, and not much else. It is a full-time job.

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