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A Sleepwalking Worker Jumps Into A Colleague's Bed On A Business Trip. Should This Innocent Mistake Be Covered By Disability Laws? An innocent mistake? An embarrassing sleepwalking incident? Perhaps. But what are the workplace consequences?

By Gene Marks Edited by Maria Bailey

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

According to this report in the American Bar Association Journal, O'Donnell heard a knock on his hotel room door around midnight. When he opened it, he found co-worker Jennifer Harkey, clad in only a black robe. Taking a step back, he watched, stunned, as Harkey made her way to his bed, got in and pulled the sheets up to her face.

When O'Donnell informed his colleague that she was in the wrong room and then asked her to leave, she was unresponsive. According to court documents, O'Donnell said, "she just laid there, didn't move and was nonresponsive to me asking her to leave and telling her she was in the wrong room." Harkey did not touch O'Donnell during the incident. Moreover, O'Donnell states that she never propositioned him or sexually harassed him.

Regardless, "O'Donnell was concerned," a summary written in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of New Orleans says. "He was a married man on an out-of-town business trip and a woman was in a bed in his hotel room. He called his supervisor."

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