Reno-based real estate agent Misty Carter filed a lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court of Nevada against Chris Nevada, the owner of the Reno-based Nevada Real Estate Group, saying she was sexually harassed and then fired in retaliation for resisting his advances.
In an emailed response to Our Town Reno, Nevada denied the accusations.
“Carter is a real estate agent and an Independent Contractor that I had brief contact with over 2 years ago, she was not an employee of mine and did not work for me,” he responded to us by email on Sunday.
“She found an attorney that took her case on contingency basis costing her no legal fees, hoping to extort me to settle, I refused because facts and truth are on my side that her claims never happened. I have full faith in the legal system that it will work in my favor and I will be seeking damages for defamation of character and malicious prosecution from Misty Carter,” he also indicated.
Carter now a realtor at Brooks Home Team part of eXp Realty and a former TMCC student, according to her social media presence, says that Nevada, who used to work within eXp as well, offered to pay her for sex while she worked for him from December 2021 to June 2022.
“Throughout almost the entirety of plaintiff’s employment she was subject to a course of sexual harassment which a reasonable woman could readily have found sufficiently egregious and/or offensive to constitute a work environment permeated with sexual hostility… Chris Nevada’s offensive conduct included, but was not limited to: Offers to take plaintiff on vacations and/or trips; inappropriate questions directed at plaintiff about her body; offensive questions as to plaintiff’s personal relationships; offers to pay plaintiff for sex,” part of the lawsuit indicates.
It goes on to accuse Nevada of asking Carter if she had had breast surgery, unwanted touching, “slaps directed at plaintiff’s posterior; attempts to kiss plaintiff … invitations to attend hot tub parties at his home, in conjunction with discussing plaintiff’s lack of a boyfriend; discussions of Chris Nevada’s interactions with prostitutes; and sexually oriented texts and other messages.”
It says she requested an apology but instead that her “employment was terminated in response to her opposition to sexual harassment perpetrated by Chris Nevada.”
Five different alleged crimes are presented in the lawsuit, sexual harassment, retaliation, battery, infliction of emotional distress, and malicious interference with prospective economic advantage. The lawsuit asks for a jury trial, as well as undisclosed damages.
It names as defendants eXp, as well as Chris Nevada and his Nevada Real Estate Group. It makes a point to indicate Carter was an employee “as opposed to an independent contractor,” a more common classification in real estate, which Nevada disputed in his email to Our Town Reno.
Nevada also indicated that “her claims were dismissed by the state because she failed to show any type of proof of any wrongdoing and also because she was not an employee,” but we could find no record of this. We asked him in a follow up for more details about this, but Nevada didn’t respond.
The local lawsuit comes as the virtual, cloud-based brokerage eXp has faced multiple sexual harassment cases in recent years and the entire real estate industry has been going through a moment of reckoning. The National Association of Realtors president resigned himself in August after reports of his own sexual misconduct.
Nevada took the Nevada Real Estate Group from eXp to LPT Realty last summer.
An eXp spokesperson has responded to other media queries concerning this lawsuit, saying it has started its own investigation and that “eXp Realty has zero tolerance for abuse, harassment, or misconduct of any kind — including by the independent real estate agents who use our services.”
Other recent lawsuits alleged two Las Vegas-based real estate agents also working for eXp Realty drugged and sexually assaulted women, after spiking their drinks at industry events.