A 44-year-old supervisor at Cleveland-Cliffs' massive Indiana Harbor steel mill has been charged with sexual battery after a female dispatcher accused him of grabbing her hair and breast inside the facility's dispatch office. Kevin Rigg, of Lowell, Indiana, faces the Level 6 felony charge following a complaint the woman filed with East Chicago police.
According to The Times of Northwest Indiana, court documents filed in Lake County Superior Court detail the allegations against Rigg, who worked as the woman's supervisor at the site. As reported by Region News Source, both the complainant and Rigg were employed not by Cleveland-Cliffs directly but by Allied Universal Security, the contractor that provides security and emergency dispatch services at the mill.
A probable cause affidavit, per the same account, alleges Rigg grabbed the victim's hair and breast on July 24 after she declined to follow him into another room. The affidavit also noted that no security cameras were present in the dispatch office where the encounter is alleged to have occurred, a detail that could complicate the investigation.
What the Charge Carries Under Indiana Law
Sexual battery under Indiana Code § 35-42-4-8 covers touching another person's breast or genitals without consent to satisfy sexual desires, and it is classified as a Level 6 felony, according to Indy Justice. That charge carries a potential sentence of six months to two and a half years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. As with any criminal charge, the allegation against Rigg remains unproven, and the case has not yet gone to trial.
The facility at the center of the allegations, Cleveland-Cliffs' Indiana Harbor mill in East Chicago, sprawls across 3,100 acres and ranks among North America's largest integrated steelmaking plants, according to Global Energy Monitor. The site houses Blast Furnace No. 7, described as the largest operating blast furnace in the United States. Parent company Cleveland-Cliffs operates 60 facilities across North America with roughly 25,000 employees as of February, per the company's own corporate filings, underscoring how much outsourced labor, including security and dispatch functions, flows through its operations.
A Contractor Relationship Raises Liability Questions
The revelation that both parties in the case worked for Allied Universal rather than for Cleveland-Cliffs itself raises open questions about how liability might be divided between the steel giant and its security contractor. Large industrial complexes like Indiana Harbor routinely rely on third-party firms for security and support staffing, a structure that can blur the lines of employer responsibility when misconduct allegations surface on-site.
Those questions arrive amid a broader national reckoning over workplace harassment enforcement. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted 2-1 in January to rescind its 2024 Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace, according to Phillips Lytle LLP, though the move altered administrative enforcement rather than the underlying statutory obligations employers hold under Title VII. EEOC data published earlier this year showed 35,774 harassment-related charges filed with the agency in 2024, a 32 percent increase over 2022 totals, as reported by Helmer Friedman LLP.
Cleveland-Cliffs' Deepening Ties to East Chicago
Cleveland-Cliffs has become an increasingly central player in East Chicago's civic and economic life. City records show the East Chicago Board of Public Works approved indemnification waivers with the company in 2024 to allow use of its parking lots for local civic events like Fusic Fest, illustrating how tightly the plant's operations are woven into municipal affairs. In April, the company also announced plans to idle finishing lines at its Burns Harbor and Gary plants while keeping core operations concentrated at Indiana Harbor, further cementing the East Chicago site's importance to the region's steel economy.
Hoodline has previously covered Cleveland-Cliffs' federal steel deal and its ongoing environmental disputes in Ohio, reflecting the company's expanding footprint and the scrutiny that comes with it. No further court proceedings have been publicly scheduled in the sexual battery case as of this report, and it remains unclear whether Cleveland-Cliffs or Allied Universal Security have issued any formal response to the allegations.
