A real estate agent claims she was drugged and sexually assaulted while attending a work event for a company that has been sued by half a dozen women in two years, according to a new lawsuit.
Kirsten Childress, 31, is now the sixth woman to launch legal action against eXp Realty, accusing them of failing to investigate her concerns.
Childress claims she was given a laced drink and then attacked while she attended a networking event during their three-day Shareholder Summit in Orlando, Florida, in May of 2023, according to her suit filed on Monday.
Childress alleges she was drugged before waking up hours later in an unknown hotel room dazed, confused and covered in bruises with an unknown man on top of her.
The suit, filed in Florida, names real estate photographer Nicholas Moore, 26, as being contracted by the brokerage firm.
The Daily Mail has reached out for comment to Moore, who denied the allegations to The New York Times, which was first to report the lawsuit.
Childress, who is married with three children, is suing Moore for sexual battery and emotional distress, and eXp Realty for creating an environment where she felt forced to leave the company.
‘It was the worst moment in my entire life,’ she told the Times.
Childress claims she was given a laced drink and then attacked while she attended an eXp Realty event in Orlando, Florida, in May of 2023
According to Childress she had been inside the Icebar in Orlando, pictured here, where she believes she was drugged
In a statement, eXp Realty said: ‘We are deeply concerned by any report of harm and extend our compassion and support to Ms. Childress.
‘The alleged incident occurred at a private, non-eXp-sponsored event, and the accused individual is not affiliated with eXp Realty.
‘When the matter was brought to our attention, we immediately responded by offering support to the victim and by taking action to help to ensure the safety of other eXp agents.
‘We want to be clear that eXp does not in any way condone, and had no involvement or control over the actions of the accused individual.’
The suit says that the firm failed to uphold their zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment and assault in the work place.
Her filing describes how she attended a private event at the Icebar in Orlando on May 19 of that year.
She recalls drinking two vodka and cranberry’s over a number of hours while also eating and socializing, the suit says.
The next thing she remembers is being ‘raped and strangled’ by Moore, the suit adds.
She says she has only ‘limited flashes of memory from that night’, and is reliant on witnesses statements, texts and law enforcement to retrace what happened.
The suit says that the firm failed to uphold their zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment and assault in the work place
The suit says that Childress was ‘not acting herself’, was ‘belligerent, slurring her words, acting erratically’
The suit says that Childress’s suitemates told her they were leaving to go to bed, and that Childress told them she would meet them there.
After an hour, her suitemates started calling her cellphone when they grew concerned. But there was no answer.
A bartender inside the Icebar then answered her phone, saying he was unable to identify the owner.
Her suitemates made their way to the bar to find Childress with a man they say introduced himself as Nick Moore, the suit says.
The suit says that Childress was ‘not acting herself’, was ‘belligerent, slurring her words, acting erratically’ and was ‘visibly impaired’.
Childress told The Times that hours later she woke up and did not recognize the man she was with.
She recalled to the outlet how she put her clothes on and ran out of the room to the hotel lobby, later realizing the sandals she had on did not belong to her.
The Icebar in Orlando, Florida, is seen here where Childress had been socializing after the summit
A hotel employee helped her get a taxi to the hotel where she was staying, where two eXp Realty agents found her ‘bruised, trembling and confused’.
The suit says that paramedics were called and she was transferred to a rape crisis center after arriving at hospital.
She told authorities that she couldn’t recall how she had ended up in Moore’s room, or what happened before she woke up.
Moore, who was interviewed the following morning, told officers that they had engaged in consensual intercourse and that he had choked Childress as part of it, according to an incident report filed with Florida’s Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
The Times noted that the report fails to mention any sign of them asking Moore if he drugged Childress.
While Childress made it clear she wanted to press charges, the state attorney’s office for the county declined to prosecute on the absence of toxicology results, the suit says.
The suit is calling for compensatory damages that will be determined at trial.
The firm has already been rocked with several high profile allegations of sexual harassment and assault.
In February of 2023 the firm was sued by four female agents who all described predatory behavior by two eXp Realty agents over a number of years.
Two agents have been accused of drugging the woman during work events. Three said they had been sexually assaulted.
Another claims she was drugged and couldn’t remember what happened after. They all said the company ignored their complaints for years. Another woman has also since filed similar claims.
Both men have denied all of the allegations against them, with the suits currently going through the court systems.