American Apparel Exec Calls $250 Million Sex Harassment Suit 'Extortion'

March 9, 2011— -- American Apparel and its often-sued CEO Dov Charney have been hit with a $250 million suit by a teenage employee who claims Charney turned her into his sex slave, but the company is firing back by calling the young woman's suit "extortion."

Irene Morales, 20, claims that for eight months CEO Dov Charney, forced the former sales clerk into sex, sodomizing her just days after her 18th birthday and keeping her a sex "prisoner" for hours in his New York City apartment.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in New York, Morales, who began working for the clothing chain in 2007 when she was 17, claims Charney demanded Morales send him "sexually explicit photographs" of herself and told the high school student that he wanted to have sex with her as soon as she turned 18.

The suit alleges that soon after Morales' 18th birthday, Charney demanded she come to his apartment where he appeared at the door "wearing only underpants."

"He forced her to get down on her knees just inside the front door and perform [a sex act] upon him, then he dragged her into his bedroom, threw her on the bed, got on top of her and forced her to perform another [sex act]," according to the suit.

Morales claims in her lawsuit she was then "held prisoner in the apartment for several hours and forced to perform additional sexual acts upon Defendant Charney."

The harassment, Morales says, was not contained to Charney's home. At work the boss gave Morales a "sex toy and it was witnessed by fellow employees."

The woman's lawyer says the harassment continued for eight months in which she was "forced to… perform many more sex acts upon Defendant Charney with the clear understanding that failure to do so would result in the loss of her employment and failure to obtain advancement."

The woman claims the constant harassment drove her to verge of a nervous breakdown and she had to quit.