Royal Spa owner accused of sexual harassment

A sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former executive of Royal Spa Corp. reads like a pornographic novel, filled with salacious charges that a co-owner of the company wrongfully fired him after becoming heavily involved in the plaintiff's swinging lifestyle.

Employee Kevin Roessler is seeking lost wages and benefits, in addition to damages for discrimination, emotional distress, negligent supervision and defamation, from Royal Spa and its CEO, Robert Dapper.

Roessler filed his lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court in Indianapolis. He’s seeking a jury trial. Dapper didn’t return voice messages seeking comment on the suit.

Roessler, who served as the Indianapolis-based company’s director of business development from June 2008 until March 2011, alleges in his complaint that the harassment started after Dapper learned that Roessler had an "open" marriage.

After discovering Roessler’s lifestyle, Dapper began to request that Roessler invite him to events where couples shared their sexual partners, according to the suit. Roessler insists in the complaint that he did not want to combine his personal life with his work and was hesitant to invite Dapper to the events.

Roessler, however, alleges that Dapper became so strident in his demands to be invited that he threatened to fire Roessler if he did not comply, so he relented.

Dapper began attending the soirees and ultimately began to display “extremely aggressive behavior” toward Roessler’s wife, persisting in his requests that Roessler’s wife perform sexual favors, the suit says.

Using a variety of websites, Roessler would arrange sexual encounters for Dapper that Roessler was required to attend, according to the suit. It alleges that at least one of the encounters occurred at a Royal Spa location

“Although these were consensual sexual encounters, [Roessler] felt that he was being used as a 'pimp' to acquire sex for Dapper,” the suit says.

According to the suit, Roessler became even more fearful of losing his job and health insurance after undergoing back surgery in April 2009.

The suit alleges that Dapper continued to demand invitations from Roessler to various sexual events until November 2011, and went so far as to boast about his sexual encounters with Roessler's wife to prospective Royal Spa customers.

Roessler eventually contacted an attorney to meet with Dapper about his complaints regarding the working conditions at Royal Spa, but Dapper instead fired him, the suit says.

Dapper co-founded Royal Spa in 1981 with Rick Bartlett. The company is headquartered at 2041 W. Epler Ave. on the south side. It has three company-owned locations and more than 50 dealers in Indiana and 10 other states, in addition to Belgium and the Netherlands, according to the company’s website.