Laura Danbom, who joined Amazon in 2017 and remains employed there, filed the lawsuit Monday in King County Superior Court. She alleges Amazon violated Washington’s Silenced No More Act, which bars employers from requiring workers to stay silent about workplace sexual misconduct.

The complaint says Danbom reported the alleged assault to Amazon human resources and the New York Police Department, and underwent a rape-kit examination. Her lawyers allege Amazon conducted an inadequate investigation and would reopen it only if police criminally charged the manager. No such charge has been filed, according to the complaint.

Danbom’s account, as described in the lawsuit, is that she and the manager attended an Amazon-hosted event with an open bar, after which he went to her hotel room. She says she refused to have sex with him and that he raped her. The manager denied the incident during a police interview, the complaint says. In a later call, he said he had been so drunk that he could not remember, according to the filing.

The complaint says Danbom gave police a condom containing DNA evidence, but investigators did not obtain a DNA sample from the manager for comparison. It also alleges Amazon told her she needed to avoid discussing the allegations at work while continuing professional contact with him if she wanted to keep her position.

“When an employer tells an employee that they must remain quiet about a rape in the workplace, that sends a signal to the employee that if they don’t do so, they’ll be fired,” Jay Free, one of Danbom’s attorneys, said.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said the company thoroughly investigates misconduct reports and may take action, including termination, when employees violate its policies. “We take any allegation of this nature extremely seriously, and we have zero tolerance for workplace sexual misconduct or violence of any kind,” Nantel said. She declined to provide further specifics.

Danbom says she moved to a different part of the company to avoid contact with the manager, disrupting a career path she believed had been leading toward a promotion. She is seeking lost wages, including back pay and bonuses, as well as a jury trial and court orders intended to improve employee protections and the handling of similar complaints.

“I had to apply to new jobs and transfer myself out to an entirely different side of the company so that I wouldn’t interact with him,” Danbom said.

The allegations have not been adjudicated in court. Survivors in King County can contact the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center’s 24-hour Resource Line at 888-998-6423. The National Sexual Assault Hotline is available at 800-656-4673.