Fort Worth Agent Sues KWRI, Accuses Former CEO John Davis, Who She Once Dated, of Sexual Misconduct

In what is a very salacious story for the Fort Worth real estate community, Keller Williams franchise owner and agent Inga Dow is suing former Keller Williams CEO John Davis, alleging she endured years of sexual misconduct, harassment, and abuse. Davis worked closely alongside Keller Williams founder Gary Keller.

Dow is also suing her broker, saying the company knew of Davis’s behavior and did nothing to stop the gross misconduct or improve the company’s culture. In fact, she says Austin-based Keller Williams Realty Inc. (KWRI), continues to retaliate against her for whistle-blowing.

The suit comes after a long mediation between Dow and Keller Williams over franchise ownership fell apart in late March. Inman News first broke the story, reporting on the amended petition filed on March 29, 2022. Inman also reported that both Davis and Keller Williams deny the charges — and Davis accused Inman of click-baiting. The allegations are intense.

“Until only recently, Plaintiff observed a company culture within KWRI (and its Regions) that encouraged employees, especially women, to do whatever it took to make sales and ‘get along’ with top performers to keep them happy,” the 57-page complaint says.

“From Plaintiff’s experience, ‘getting along’ included having to perform sexual favors or acts for male counterparts and/or top clients.”

KWRI denies all allegations.

In an emailed statement, Keller Williams spokesperson Darryl Frost told Inman, “Keller Williams and its independently-owned franchisees are committed to providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and take such allegations very seriously. In keeping with this commitment, Keller Williams and its franchisees prohibit harassment in all forms.”

(Gary) Keller declined to comment for this story, citing pending litigation. In a statement, (the accused former CEO) Davis, told Inman the lawsuit’s claims are meritless. The amended complaint was filed after the parties went through mediation and failed to come to a settlement.

Inman News

Davis says he and Dow dated for several years, and that she is ten years older than him:

“The fact is that Inga, who is more than a decade my senior, and I dated for several years as I began my real estate career,” Davis said in the new statement.

“She never made claims against me when we dated — or in the many years since then — and only brought these claims against me now when she couldn’t work out the business deal she wanted with Keller Williams. As Keller Williams continued to play hard ball in negotiations, she became more desperate to sell, dragged me into a lawsuit — despite the fact I retired from Keller William more than three years ago — and concocted a false story about our relationship in a public court filing.”

Davis was a 20-year Keller Williams veteran responsible for a good segment of the brokerage’s growth. Davis launched Keller William’s growth initiative in 2011, which Inman reported expanded the franchise by another 100,000 associates. Davis was named CEO in early 2017, “serving in the role for almost two years and earning a 94 percent employee approval rating.”

Davis resigned abruptly in January 2019, which raised eyebrows, but he wrote a letter to Inman stressing that his decision to leave was made without company pressure.

Dow has been an agent with Keller Williams since 1992.

According to the petition, Dow joined KWRI as an associate in 1992. But she did not see any efforts on the part of the brokerage to address sexual harassment training from KWRI or even KW’s Dallas-Forth Worth regional office, until 2020.

That mentality emboldened KWRI employees and agents “to require, encourage, and/or turn a blind eye to ongoing sexual harassment and a hostile work environment,” the complaint said.

According to Dow, the sexual harassment took the form of being encouraged to sleep with potential recruits, or “get in the hot tub with them.”

“For example, it was not uncommon for management to ask Plaintiff, ‘Why don’t you just sleep with ____ to recruit them,’ ‘Why don’t you want to get in the hot tub with ____,’ or ‘Why don’t you go out with ____ (who was married)? It’s harmless.’”

Dow met Davis when he was hired as a mortgage loan officer for Keller Mortgage. Davis is also the nephew of a woman named Mary Tennant, who was Dow’s “best friend” at the time. Tennant sat on KW’s Board of Directors until late 2019.

According to the lawsuit, Dow and Davis attended a party hosted by Tennant in April 1998, after which Davis asked to accompany Dow back to her home, go inside, and talk. Davis, says the petition, soon began exposing himself and violated Dow.

“On this evening, while at her home, upon exiting the bathroom, Plaintiff entered her living room to find Davis masturbating,” the complaint alleges. “Despite her astonishment, Plaintiff asked Davis to leave and walked him to the door. However, before he left, Davis, who is a much larger person than Plaintiff, grabbed Plaintiff and proceeded to engage in sexual misconduct that violated her body.”

 Nearly every time after that, the suit alleges, when Davis called Dow, he made sexual demands upon her.

“Plaintiff also recalls events where she did not capitulate and/or submit to Davis’s sexual demands. In or around the end of May 1998, Plaintiff recalls an incident of sexual misconduct where she cried out in pain and asked Davis to stop, but instead, Davis proceeded to have anal sexual intercourse with Plaintiff, despite her objection,” the complaint says.

The complaint alleges that Dow felt “she had no choice but to acquiesce, because Davis was backed and supported by Gary Keller, CEO and Founder of KWRI, which gave Davis a high degree of power within KWRI.”

Inman News

Dow and Davis were actually business partners, too, for years.

In January 1999, Dow moved to Dallas to help David Osbourne expand his family’s KW brokerage into more markets. Osbourne brought Davis on board as team leader, making it nearly impossible for her to not interact with him.

“Accordingly, this dynamic forced Plaintiff to endure his constant harassment and verbal berating for fear of losing everything she had helped build and having her reputation damaged.”

Davis allegedly continued sexually harassing Dow, including “repeated directives to pleasure him orally or face consequences.” In 2004, Dow’s attorneys say that “she found the courage to say that she would no longer engage in any sexual act with Davis,” allegedly resulting in Davis bad-mouthing her to Osborn, saying she was being “difficult to deal with.” Dow then allegedly told Osborn, who she says was Davis’s boss, about Davis’s behavior.

But Dow says her KW bosses simply said, she ‘have to do whatever it takes to get along,’. Dow says KW management either condoned the sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, and hostile work environment or conceded “to the toxic culture of KWRI,” according to the complaint says.

Next, Osborn and Davis allegedly initiated a “business divorce” from Dow. According to Dow, she was essentially forced out because she blew the whistle. Of note is another case invoked by Dow’s attorney, involving the removal of a Baltimore, Maryland-based Seth Campbell, “the owner of multiple successful KW market centers, in July 2020 after a months-long investigation into multiple allegations of sexual harassment.” In October 2020, an agent Campbell was mentoring filed a lawsuit against Campbell alleging sexual battery, harassment, and retaliation.

According to the former Keller Williams agent who shared her story with Inman, leadership at Keller Williams knew about Campbell’s alleged history of sexual harassment in August 2016, when she reported it to Mo Anderson and Mary Tennant, two former executives with the company, both of whom were on the board of directors at the time.

Mary Tennant, as we said above, is John Davis’ aunt.

Fort Worth agents have known of the Keller Williams franchise disputes for some time, and say Dow may be looking for a settlement in exchange for her franchises. It could also be a Pandora’s box for work-place and sexual harassment in the industry.

According to TREC, the Hulen Road office is Dow’s real estate office, yet when I called there Friday, I was sent to the broker, Kimberley Tarber, a close friend of Dow who manages the offices on Dow’s behalf,