Norma Izaguirre speaks at a news conference announcing a civil lawsuit with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights against her former employer, Absolute Drywall, for sex discrimination and illegal retaliation on March 4, 2025. Izaguirre was raped by a co-worker while working on a construction site in Eagan. (Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer)
The Minnesota Department of Human Rights joined a civil lawsuit against a drywall contractor for sex discrimination and retaliation for firing a female worker after she reported sexual harassment and rape on the job.
Norma Izaguirre, who first shared her story publicly with the Reformer in 2022, faced repeated unwanted sexual advances by a fellow worker while employed by Absolute Drywall cleaning up dust and other debris on construction projects.
The harassment culminated in rape in May 2021 when the co-worker, Juan Diego Medina Cisneros, came up behind Izaguirre and attacked her as she was cleaning a bathtub in the Viking Lakes apartment complex, a sprawling development built by the owners of the Minnesota Vikings around the team’s training facility in Eagan.
Izaguirre said she threatened to call the police but Medina Cisneros told her no one would believe her and she would be fired.
She reported the harassment and assault to supervisors anyways, but the company told her they determined it was a consensual relationship, and owner Dan Ortega fired Izaguirre soon after.
Izaguirre then reported the assault to law enforcement and the state Department of Human Rights with the help of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters union, which also assisted Absolute Drywall workers in reporting wage theft on the Viking Lakes development.
A lawyer for Absolute Drywall did not respond to a request for comment, but in a six-page response to the complaint Izaguirre filed with the state in 2022, Absolute Drywall accused Izaguirre of creating a hostile work environment by refusing to do cleanup work and instead demanding other kinds of work.
According to the company, Izaguirre was fired because there wasn’t any “scrapping work” that she demanded, not because she reported being sexually assaulted.
That statement is striking given Medina Cisneros has since admitted to raping Izaguirre.
Last month, the 31-year-old pleaded guilty to a felony charge of criminal sexual conduct and will serve 36 months in prison followed by 10 years probationary release under an agreement with the Dakota County Attorney’s Office.
Medina Cisneros was charged in July 2022, but he wasn’t arrested until last June when border agents apprehended him trying to reenter the United States from his native Mexico at the Gateway International Bridge in Texas.
Following the guilty plea, Izaguirre filed a civil lawsuit in Dakota County District Court last week against Absolute Drywall for sex discrimination and illegal retaliation. She is seeking monetary damages including for lost wages and emotional distress with an amount to be determined at trial.
The Minnesota Human Right Department joined the lawsuit after the agency’s independent investigation substantiated Izaguirre’s story and determined the company violated her civil rights. The agency, which is being represented by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, agrees with Izaguirre that she was illegally fired for reporting the abuse.
In its legal filing joining Izaguirre’s suit, the Minnesota Human Rights Department also said Absolute Drywall didn’t have any policies or procedures in place to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and assault. In joining the suit, the state is asking a judge to make Absolute Drywall implement policies and training to ensure workers’ civil rights aren’t violated. The state is also seeking oversight of Absolute Drywall to monitor the company for other reports of harassment.
“We want to make sure that what happened here does not happen to any other employee in any other workplace in Minnesota,” said Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero at a news conference announcing the lawsuit on Tuesday with Izaguirre, members of the carpenters union and Attorney General Keith Ellison.
Izaguirre, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter, said she was grateful for the state’s support in her case.
“This is an acknowledgement of not only my truth, but also the unacceptable reality that women like me, Latina women, too often face sexual harassment and assault in the construction industry,” Izaguirre said. “I hope that by standing up for myself and speaking out, other women feel empowered to tell their stories and employers who are abusive to their workers are held accountable.”
Even after Izaguirre went public with her story in 2022 and Absolute Drywall was cited for wage theft by state authorities, the company has continued to win contracts on public projects and affordable housing developments by large general contractors, including Eagle Building Company, Ebert and Amcon Construction.
Those contractors did not immediately respond to emails asking if they had implemented any protections to ensure workers are victims of wage theft or sexual assault on their job sites.