A Southern California couple whose daughter died by suicide at a three-day Activision Blizzard employee retreat is suing the video game giant for allegedly engendering a culture of “brutal workplace sexual harassment” that they say led directly to her death.
In the 50-page civil suit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday, Paul and Janet Moynihan accuse Activision Blizzard—which is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft for $68.7 billion—of failing to rein in the bad behavior they believe “was a substantial factor in bringing about” 32-year-old Kerri Moynihan’s decision to take her own life.
The filing blames Activision Blizzard for having “fostered and permitted a sexually hostile work environment to exist in which female employees were routinely sexually harassed, belittled, disparaged and discriminated against, and Activision failed and refused to take corrective action or reasonable steps to prevent that harassment.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“Examples of such sexual harassment included ‘cube crawls,’ in which inebriated male employees ‘crawled’ through office cubicles and groped or engaged in other inappropriate conduct toward female employees; unwanted sexual comments, advances and physical touching directed toward female employees by male co-workers (including, in some cases, by high-ranking male executives); open banter by male employees about their sexual conquests and female bodies; and jokes about rape,” it says.
Activision Blizzard has been under fire since last year, when the State of California sued the company for allegedly fostering a “pervasive frat boy workplace culture” under which sexual harassment was not just tolerated, but largely welcomed. The company, which is behind such blockbuster video game titles as “Call of Duty,” also agreed to set up an $18 million fund for harassment victims following a separate lawsuit by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over discriminatory workplace practices.
“There is no place anywhere at our company for discrimination, harassment, or unequal treatment of any kind, and I am grateful to the employees who bravely shared their experiences,” CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement at the time. “I am sorry that anyone had to experience inappropriate conduct, and I remain unwavering in my commitment to make Activision Blizzard one of the world’s most inclusive, respected, and respectful workplaces.”
On April 27, 2017, a security guard at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, where Activision’s global sales and finance teams were meeting, found Kerri Moynihan, a CPA and finance manager at Activision’s Santa Monica headquarters, dead in her room, her parents’ lawsuit explains.
Kerri, at the time, was romantically involved with her supervisor, a married man with a newborn son identified in the filing as Greg Restituito. Having a sexual relationship with a subordinate “is contrary to Activision policy,” the Moynihans’ suit points out.
On the evening of April 26, Kerri joined a group of co-workers for dinner, explains the lawsuit. She was scheduled to give a presentation to her colleagues the next day, it says. At around 11 p.m., Kerri and some work friends headed to the Grand Californian’s bar for drinks.
A photo included in the Moynihans' lawsuit, showing their daughter, Kerri, just a few hours before her death.
Los Angeles County Superior CourtAbout 90 minutes later, Kerri “spoke with Restituito in the hotel’s lobby, then returned to the bar,” the filing continues. A few minutes after that, Restituito sent Kerri a text message reading: “Please don’t do that. Not tonight. Think about it and make your decision when your mind is clear.”
Shortly before 2 a.m., Kerri left the bar and returned to her room. Restituito was staying directly across the hall, states the lawsuit, which was first reported by The Washington Post.
“According to data from Restituito’s room keycard, beginning at approximately 2:15 a.m., Restituito repeatedly left his room for short intervals,” it goes on. “The next morning, beginning at approximately 8:30 a.m., Restituito tried contacting Kerri. At approximately 9:00 a.m., Restituito contacted hotel security.”
Kerri’s body was discovered just before 9:30.
One of Restituito’s room keys was found in Kerri’s hotel room, according to the lawsuit. But Restituito and Activision Blizzard stonewalled investigators, and attempted to cover up what had happened, the Moynihans allege.
Restituito told detectives that he had been in Kerri’s room to prepare for a presentation at the conference, the suit explains. According to a police report cited in the filing, Restituito made “seemingly unusual inquiries with other employees who were present with [Kerri] the night preceding her death.”
The lawsuit also contends that Restituito later went to Kerri’s apartment “and cleaned it and removed items from it.”Restituito denied having a sexual relationship with Kerri, and “lied to the police about his reason for having a key to Kerri’s apartment,” the suit says, pointing out that Restituito finally came clean about the affair under a second round of questioning by detectives.
Restituito did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment. Activision Blizzard, according to the Moynihans, “refused to turn over Kerri’s work-issued laptop” to police, and told investigators that her work-issued cell phone had been “wiped.”
The Moynihans state in their lawsuit that “Kerri’s suicide (if that) was the product of an uncontrollable impulse,” listing several reasons, including the fact that she did not leave behind a suicide note; there is no proof of any pre-planning; she never intimated to anyone that she was considering suicide; she had plans to attend a country music festival a few days later; she was soon going to serve as the maid-of-honor at a friend’s wedding for which she had already bought plane tickets; and that she would never have left her beloved cat, Mr. Leo, alone without making advance plans for him to be cared for.”
In an emailed statement to The Daily Beast on Friday night, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said, “We at Activision Blizzard were, and continue to be, deeply saddened by the tragic death of Ms. Moynihan, who was a valued member of the company. We will address the complaint through the legal process as appropriate, and out of respect for the family we have no further comment at this time.”
Restituito worked as a senior finance director for Activision Blizzard until May 2017, the month after Moynihan’s death, according to a LinkedIn profile cited by the Post.
The Moynihans’ lawsuit makes reference to a July 2021 lawsuit by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), which cited a female Activision Blizzard employee who died by suicide on a company trip with her male boss, but did not identify Kerri Moynihan by name. It also refers to “an incident in or about December 2016, in which male co-workers passed around a photograph of Kerri’s vagina at an Activision holiday party.”
After the DFEH lawsuit was filed, Activision Blizzard called it “distorted, and in many cases false,” saying the company was “sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH to drag into the complaint the tragic suicide of an employee whose passing has no bearing whatsoever on this case and with no regard for her grieving family."
The Moynihans, whose attorneys declined to comment on the record for this article, obviously see things very differently.
Kerri, a Massachusetts native, graduated cum laude from Northeastern University in 2008 with a degree in business administration, her parents note in their lawsuit. She became a Certified Public Accountant the following year, passing the CPA exam on her first try. “Kerri was Paul and Janet’s only child,” the suit states. “She was a loving, caring daughter to her parents, with whom she was extremely close. Kerri emailed her parents on a daily basis and usually spoke to at least one of them every day. Kerri and her parents went on family vacations together and Kerri frequently visited them during the holidays.”
Activision Blizzard, for its part, did not “take all reasonable steps to prevent” their daughter from being harassed at work, which the Moynihans say was a “substantial factor in causing harm to Kerri, including, without limitation, humiliation, embarrassment, belittlement, sadness, discomfort, emotional distress, mental anguish and pain and suffering, all to her detriment and damage and tragically culminating in Kerri’s death.”
They are seeking damages of at least $1 million.
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
