Editor’s note: This story includes mention of sexual assault, sexual harassment, verbal abuse and vulgar language.
Elizabeth Spaulding and Jewels Nelson breathed a sigh of relief as they stood before Crazy Horse. The women entered the Bloomington restaurant standing tall, prepared to end the cycle of sexual misconduct they had endured for months.
They would soon discover the culture of silence engulfing Crazy Horse, and the owners’ suppression of anyone who dared to break it.
Spaulding, 25, and Nelson, 26, approached the establishment's owners July 24 for a meeting about general manager Joseph “Jay” Brink’s sexual harassment. Before they could speak, Crazy Horse owners Ron Stanhouse and his wife Liz Stanhouse immediately presented the women with documents for a one-week suspension.
The Stanhouses told Spaulding and Nelson they were being suspended for standing on the bar and swearing at Brink, which Spaulding and Nelson said never happened. They believe the story was a preemptive move to suspend them before they could bring allegations against Brink to the owners.
Spaulding and Nelson refused to sign the suspension papers. They passed their own document to the Stanhouses detailing the sexual offenses Brink allegedly committed against them and their female coworkers.
There were accusations from nine women on the list.
Nelson said the Stanhouses appeared surprised to hear of such behavior and said they had never received any complaints about Brink, 40. Even after hearing the numerous cases against the general manager, Ron Stanhouse said there was nothing he could do. Nelson said Ron insisted more women needed to come forward because they depended heavily on Brink.
The next week, Nelson and Spaulding were taken off the schedule and removed from the employee software system. They text messaged Ron Stanhouse on July 27 to ask why they couldn’t work.
"It’s best if you don’t come in for any reason,” the owner responded.
•••
The Indiana Daily Student spoke to four sources, including Nelson and Spaulding, who said Crazy Horse ownership and management fostered a culture of sexual harassment and abuse for at least three years.
The IDS reached out to the Stanhouses for comment on the accusations of negligence and fostering an unsafe work environment. Ron Stanhouse initially agreed to an interview over the phone, but later rescinded his agreement.
“Our company policy at Crazy Horse is not to make statements regarding current or past personnel,” he said in an emailed response. In a later email, he added, “We have many staff that have worked with us for 10, 20, and even 30 years and they are the backbone of our operation.”
The IDS also reached out to Brink over the phone and by text for comment. He did not reply.
•••
Spaulding started serving at Crazy Horse during summer 2023. She said her initial experience was positive but quickly changed when she began working night shifts supervised by Brink.
He often made comments toward Spaulding including, “I want to bite your nipples off,” or “You look so good I want to jizz on you.”
She said she hit her breaking point when she heard Brink make similar disturbing remarks about an 18-year-old employee.
Spaulding’s relationship with the owners did little to make her feel safer at work.
In June, Spaulding forgot to tip out the kitchen at the end of her shift. The next day, she said Ron Stanhouse yelled at her in the middle of the restaurant and threatened to fire her. Later that week, Spaulding called a meeting with Liz Stanhouse, who manages the schedule, to address her husband’s intimidation.
When Spaulding asked for an apology, Liz Stanhouse refused to reply according to an audio recording of the meeting. Unsatisfied, Spaulding left the meeting.
The following week, Spaulding and Nelson, who typically had two to four shifts per week, were given only one each. Although Nelson was not involved in the confrontation with the owners, she felt she was punished due to her friendship with Spaulding.
The two women felt increasingly powerless, and they feared the consequences of speaking out.
“Are we actually doing something wrong or is it the fact that we’re speaking up and saying something about this treatment?” Nelson said. “Every time we tried to change something to make it a safer environment, we were always punished.”
Spaulding said Ron and Liz Stanhouse’s tactics to repress women employees protected them and Brink from accountability.
At least 10 female employees have accused Brink of sexual harassment between the compiled document and a police report filed by Nelson. Ranging from vulgar comments to forceful sexual advances, the women subjected to Brink’s harassment said he has engaged in inappropriate behavior for years with no punishment.
“You just dreaded going to work every day,” Spaulding said. “It became normal to walk in and know, ‘I’m going to get harassed today.’”
After Spaulding was told not to come back to Crazy Horse, she asked her coworkers to come forward about Brink’s harassment.
At least two other employees sent text messages to Ron Stanhouse with the compiled document of Brink’s offenses, which were ignored. Then, more employees showed the same document to Ron and Liz Stanhouse in person, and they claimed to have never seen it before.
“We were all so frustrated because now there’s proof of multiple people coming forward, and they’re lying saying they had never heard anything about this,” Nelson said. “Nothing was being done.”
•••
Nelson began serving around the same time as Spaulding. Both women said they regularly experienced unwanted touching from Brink on their buttocks and waist. When they told him to stop, Brink said it was an accident.
“I could always tell he had an interest in me,” Nelson said. “I tried to brush it off like it was no big deal.”
After a month of working at the restaurant, Brink attempted to kiss Nelson twice without her consent. Nelson said she told him no, but Brink persisted.
“I tried to be respectful about it because he was the general manager, the highest manager, and I didn’t want to offend him in any way,” she said. “It’s difficult to assert yourself because he’s a higher-up.”
Zoe Peterson, director of the Sexual Assault Research Initiative at the Kinsey Institute, said power dynamics are a key factor in harassment cases.
“In workplace environments where there is a pretty big power differential, consent almost loses its meaning,” she said. “People don’t have the power to say yes or no.”
Peterson said restaurants and bars are high risk spaces for sexual misconduct because employees often struggle to identify inappropriate harassment, or they dismiss the behavior. Hourly workers are especially vulnerable, as they fear losing their jobs and can be easily replaced.
As general manager, Brink supervised the entire Crazy Horse staff when the owners weren‘t in the restaurant. Every woman Brink sexually harassed worked under him.
In November 2023, Nelson said Brink spread a rumor that the two of them had sexual relations in the restaurant’s bathroom.
“It was humiliating,” Nelson said.
When she asked the managers for help to stop the rumors, they told her to “brush it off.”
“Whenever we try to talk about those things, it’s like they’re uninterested,” Nelson said.
“They don’t want to talk about it and they don’t want to hear it.”
Zach Dickstein, 21, served at Crazy Horse from September 2022 to August 2023. He witnessed Brink’s harassment toward his women coworkers.
“Everyone was free game to Jay,” Dickstein said. “He would grope and smack people’s butts. He would comment on female workers’ bodies and made a lot of people very uncomfortable.”
•••
Brink’s harassment wasn’t limited to just the employees.
Spaulding said Brink once threw coasters toward a customer’s cleavage while she sat at the bar.
Brink also tried to take home a drunk woman who was too intoxicated to stand, according to an employee who worked at Crazy Horse at the time. She requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. Originally drinking with a group, the intoxicated woman’s friends left her alone and she passed out in a booth.
When the employee tried to help the woman get home, Brink demanded to drive her himself. Suspicious of his intentions, the employee ordered an Uber for the woman anyway.
She knew all too well what could happen when locked in a car with Brink.
In 2021, Brink, in his late 30s at the time, offered to drive the then-21-year-old employee to her car after work. As she tried to exit his vehicle, Brink tried to kiss her, which she resisted. Brink then pulled down his pants to expose himself and told the woman to perform oral sex on him, despite her telling him “no.”
“I was trapped,” she said.
Brink persisted until she told him she “needs to think about it until tomorrow.”
“It made me feel devalued,” she said. “It’s like losing a part of yourself.”
Brink never apologized to the employee, and later insisted to her the encounter was consensual.
•••
In early July, the female employees of Crazy Horse started sharing their stories with one another. They realized Brink had been making young women uncomfortable for years and decided to compile a document detailing each sexual offense he had committed against them.
“I opened up to some of the other servers and they had even worse stories than me,” Nelson said. “People have quit because of the things he’s done.”
When Brink caught wind of the employees discussing his harassment, Nelson and Spaulding said he tried to fire them from Crazy Horse on July 21. Unable to provide sufficient reasoning for their dismissal, Brink told the women they were suspended instead to avoid wrongful termination.
Later that week, Nelson and Spaulding had their meeting with the owners, resulting in nothing.
After they realized the owners wouldn’t help them, Nelson and Spaulding decided to take action themselves.
On Aug.13, Spaulding filed an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against Ron Stanhouse for discrimination based on her sex and retaliation for reporting harassment. She claimed her former employer intimidated female staff by yelling at them and threatening their jobs daily.
On the same day, Nelson and three of her coworkers filed a sexual harassment police report against Brink.
“I want restaurants in general to be a safe environment,” Nelson said. “It should not be acceptable for anyone to be harassed, talked down to, or to be treated unfairly. None of that is okay.”
Spaulding took her activism public by writing reviews on the Crazy Horse Yelp page, exposing the sexual misconduct and intimidation she faced. Her reviews were promptly deleted, but not before a user on Reddit reposted Spaulding’s story on Aug. 11.
The Reddit post garnered over 250 upvotes and 130 comments, with overwhelming support for Spaulding and her coworkers. Many comments criticized Ron Stanhouse for his unfair work environment, and others pledged to boycott the restaurant.
“I want to make sure that the story is told so people aren’t supporting Crazy Horse, by giving their money to people who have no regard for women,” Spaulding said. “I wanted to stand up for the women who are after me.”
Brink was fired from Crazy Horse during the second week of August, which a current employee attributed to social media pressure in an interview with the IDS. On Aug. 15, the restaurant’s Facebook page made a post announcing they hired a new general manager.
None of the women affected by Brink’s sexual misconduct received an apology.
“I think it’s impressive when victims come together and take action,” Peterson said. “But it shouldn't have to be that way. People shouldn’t have to feel like they’re putting their careers on the line to come forward and call attention to a problem.”
Peterson said employees should have the ability to report sexual misconduct without fear of retaliation, while also having access to support and resources. She advised owners to establish clear reporting procedures to foster a safe work environment.
Sexual harassment training is not legally required for non-government workers in Indiana. However, there are several programs designed to combat this issue, including prevention training courses specifically for restaurants.
When asked if she had advice for women working in the service industry, Spaulding said, “I hope they know they have a voice and they don’t have to be scared of being retaliated against. You have a right to say no.”
A list of resources is available here if you or someone you know has experienced sexual harassment or abuse.
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