Hunter
10/27/25
A Linn County woman has filed suit against her health care company employer, alleging sexual harassment.
Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Trisha Boughn is an employee at Telligen Inc., of West Des Moines, which is under contract with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to help 14 states pursue various health care initiatives.
The suit stems from the May 2024 hiring of Ricardo Berman as a supervisor over Boughn and seven other female employees while he worked remotely from Washington DC. After telling her that he would make her a “bad ass” manager, his conduct allegedly escalated to inappropriate and unwelcome behavior.
Those behaviors included repeated unnecessary one-on-one meetings, and calling her repeatedly during work hours while steering the conversations to matters that were almost always sexual in nature. He reportedly made comments about co-workers being interested in him, and during one work meeting said, “You wouldn’t believe the number of people who work naked.”
During a September 2024 company weekend in Des Moines, Berman invited Boughn and another employee to his hotel for a planned gift exchange. He allegedly gave each of them a large purple vibrator. When the other woman went to the restroom, Berman reportedly forced a kiss on Boughn.
Boughn filed a police report and informed human resources, who subsequently fired Berman. Tellegen then demoted her, claiming that Berman didn’t get approval to promote her to manager.
The suit alleges Berman had a known history of sexual harassment that Telligen should have discovered in a background check before hiring him. Boughn seeks unspecified damages for negligent hiring, negligent supervision, retaliation, and fostering a hostile work environment that led to sexual harassment.