While husband-and-wife nurses in Arizona await the next step in their battle to reclaim jobs lost over their adult Internet site, an intervention counselor here has been fired from her job over posting nude photographs of herself on the Web.
And it all began when she started the posting after catching her husband looking at nude photos of another woman online.
Wendy Gesellschap, said to have had a stellar work record while working for the Community Intervention and Research Center since December 1998, was shocked to be terminated "for a hobby she engaged in during her off time," according to a press release from her attorney.
She was fired 31 August, when a supervisor called her into the office and handed her a picture downloaded from her adult Web site (www.bettybabes.com). "I started this site to fulfill my husband's fantasy," she says. And she's considering legal action against her now former employer.
"These cases appear to be the beginning of a trend," says Lawrence G. Walters of Wasserman & Walters in Winter Park, Florida, a First Amendment and employment law specialist - and, the attorney representing fired Arizona intensive care nurses George and Tracy Miller in their battle over their adult Web site. "The question is, how far can an employer go in regulating your activities in your free time?"
