Fitness club settles civil suit

Friday, Sept. 9, 2005

A North Bethesda fitness club settled a civil suit last month involving three women who said they were sexually assaulted at the club in 2002.

The two sides arrived at the out-of-court settlement just minutes before closing arguments were to begin in the jury trial in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Aug. 23.

The trial, which began Aug. 15 before Judge Michael D. Mason, involved a Chevy Chase woman and two Rockville women who sought a total of $13.2 million in compensatory and punitive damages against Bally Total Fitness Corp. and Leon Curtis Pierce Jr., 37, of Columbia. The complaint involved a sexual assault — of which Pierce was convicted — and other alleged assaults at Bally’s Total Fitness at Mid-Pike Plaza on Rockville Pike.

Neither Rebecca N. Strandberg, the attorney for the three plaintiffs, nor Bally’s spokesman Matt Messinger would comment on the settlement.

The civil suit stemmed from criminal charges against Pierce, who pleaded guilty in Circuit Court in April 2003 to two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault against two women. The criminal charges involved only one of the three plaintiffs in the civil suit. Pierce was sentenced to two six-month prison terms, with all but two months suspended and placed on three years supervised probation, according to Circuit Court records. The Gazette does not print the names of victims or plaintiffs in sexual assault cases.

Pierce was working as a sales associate at Bally’s at the time of the assaults. According to the 17-count civil complaint, the three women sued Bally’s Total Fitness and Pierce for assault and battery; negligent misrepresentation; fraud; negligent hire, supervision and retention; and gross negligence.

The complaint states that on May 30, 2002, one of the plaintiffs who had recently purchased a membership at the club arrived for a new member workout and fitness assessment. Pierce, who was not a certified personal trainer, was the employee assigned to give the woman a tour of the building and to take her measurements as part of the fitness assessment.

The woman called Bally management and described the incident, according to an Aug. 12 news release from Strandberg.

The plaintiffs accused Bally of negligence for allowing Pierce to remain at work for several days after the first complaint, during which time the two other women said they were assaulted. The two women said Pierce inappropriately touched them while taking their measurements in a closed room and photographed them without their consent on June 2, 2002.

‘‘Bally owed a duty of care to the public and its members to select employees who were competent to perform their duties and to properly train and supervise such employees,” the complaint states.