SPECIAL INVESTIGATION In the first few months of 2007, John Cherry worked on a survey crew for Shaw Coastal Inc. on the Amite River and other places in southern Louisiana. During some of that time, he would conduct surveys from a boat with another, more senior employee, Michael Reasoner, a project coordinator and safety manager who was needed to operate a hydrograph.
As the days went by, according to Cherry, Reasoner started to do unnerving things, such as brushing up against him and asking Cherry to remove his shirt or wear cutoffs. Despite Cherry telling Reasoner, a much shorter man, to back off, Reasoner over several days continued to make suggestions that implied he wanted to have sex with Cherry. Cherry says Reasoner also sent him salacious texts with messages such as "U R 2 Sexy " and explicit sexual references.