The mortgage company made headlines in June when it fired its HR director, Melissa Rolfe, for comments she made on social media. Rolfe is the stepmother of former Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe, who is facing felony murder charges in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks. Brooks was killed in June during a traffic stop outside a Wendy’s restaurant in southeast Atlanta.

Equity Prime Mortgage is now suing Melissa Rolfe along with the congressional campaign of Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. Equity Prime claims that Rolfe and the Greene campaign conspired to “peddle the false narrative” that the company fired her for “fighting for her stepson,” according to court documents.

Equity Prime insists that Garrett Rolfe’s actions had nothing to do with his stepmother’s dismissal. Instead, the company said, Melissa Rolfe was fired for abominable behavior in the workplace.

The lawsuit also accused Rolfe of engaging in “blatantly racist conduct” in the workplace, including telling a Black staffer to “upgrade [her] standards” and stop dating Black men, as well as calling Black men “weak.”

“Not surprisingly, Rolfe lost people’s confidence in her ability to perform her job as an HR director and was fired,” the lawsuit said.

After her firing, the lawsuit alleged, Rolfe embarked on a “smear campaign” against the company, aided by “a Congressional campaign and a candidate seeking to exploit the death of Rayshard Brooks for their own personal gain.”

The lawsuit accused Rolfe and Greene – who has expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory and has made a series of racist videos – of conspiring to “launch a national media firestorm” by falsely claiming that Rolfe was only fired because of her stepson being charged with murder.

“The smear campaign mobilized a furious social media mob and prompted death threats, a boycott, and enormous reputational and financial harm to [Equity Prime Mortgage],” the lawsuit said.

The company is suing both Rolfe and Greene’s campaign for defamation and false light invasion of privacy. The lawsuit seeks damages and attorney’s fees.

News Source: Mortgage Professional America