Tacoma-area golf club ‘turned a blind eye’ to sexual misconduct, lawsuit alleges
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Family sued Fircrest Golf Club alleging the club ignored staff sexual misconduct
- Complaint says a 16-year-old employee was allegedly assaulted by fitness director
- Lawsuit seeks damages and urges stricter hiring, supervision policies
Attorneys for the family of a teenage girl who worked for the Fircrest Golf Club allege the club “turned a blind eye” to its former fitness director’s misconduct with underage girls and failed to protect her from being sexually assaulted, according to a recently filed lawsuit.
The girl worked in the golf club’s fitness center and was 16 when she was allegedly assaulted during a staff meeting in 2024. A copy of the complaint, filed Oct. 24 in Pierce County Superior Court, claims the former fitness director, John Jarman, touched her inappropriately while taking staff through the fitness center, where he had different girls help him demonstrate how to use the equipment.
The lawsuit claims the Fircrest Golf Club knew or should have known Jarman, who was the girl’s supervisor, posed a threat to its female employees, but that he was continually allowed access to high-school aged girls.
Jarman has not been charged with a crime, and he is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. He does not appear to have any felony criminal history. In an email Friday, Jarman offered a statement on the lawsuit.
“The allegations listed in this suit are all false,” Jarman said.
Jarman went on to allege that the lawsuit was filed because the parents of the girl he is accused of assaulting have a personal grievance against him.
William McClure, an attorney with the law firm bringing the lawsuit, Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, said Jarman left his employment with the Fircrest Golf Club in the spring and moved out of state.
Aaron Bigby, an attorney representing the Fircrest Golf Club, said in an email Friday that lawsuit identifies one incident that allegedly took place at the club, which he said was never reported by the minor employee or her parents while she was employed there or after her employment ended. Bigby said the golf club only became aware of the allegation once the plaintiffs’ attorneys notified them.
“Once the allegation was disclosed by the Plaintiffs’ Attorneys, it was investigated,” Bigby wrote. “Fircrest Golf Club denies that the incident described was ever reported by anyone previously other than the Plaintiffs’ lawyers.”
“Fircrest Golf Club did not ‘turn a blind eye’ to ‘misconduct with underage girls’ and in fact, the Golf Club takes these allegations very seriously and will defend these claims through the appropriate litigation process,” Bigby added.
Golf club managers were allegedly alerted to Jarman’s conduct in 2022 when the former fitness director was caught groping a different underage female employee, according to the lawsuit. Club management directed Jarman to apologize, but he refused, and the club did not take any employment action against him, the lawsuit alleges.
McClure told The News Tribune the Fircrest Golf Club is a workplace where teenagers are often working their first job. He said this type of institution should be more cautious when hiring adults to work with and supervise young girls and boys on a daily basis.
“From the family’s perspective, it’s really just wanting to make sure that Fircrest Golf Club and other places like the club that employ high schoolers have better processes in place to ensure that the folks that are interacting with underage kids are part of a safe environment,” McClure said of the lawsuit.
McClure said he wasn’t aware of any allegations of sexual misconduct being reported to law enforcement. He said the girl whose family he is representing stopped working for the golf club a few months after she was allegedly sexually assaulted.
“I think a lot of these minors, it’s their first brush with employment, and bringing an accusation against your supervisor can be a really scary thing, particularly when you’re 16 or 17 years old and that person is much older than you, they have hiring and firing power,” McClure said.
The girl McClure is representing suffered “mental anguish” and “severe emotional distress” as a result of the golf club’s negligence, the lawsuit states. It seeks an award of special and general damages to be established at trial as well as costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.
This story was originally published November 8, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
