For the first time, Christine Arnold is speaking publicly about her legal battle with Copart Inc., a North Texas-based Fortune 500 company and global leader in car auctions with locations in 11 countries.
Arnold says it took years to rise to the position of vice president of human resources, a role she claims brought both authority and adversity. She alleges she experienced harassment and gender discrimination during her time at the company.
Copart has described her allegations as baseless.
“I’m angry,” she told CBS News Texas, “We shouldn’t be having conversations like this in 2025.”
Arnold says that in her role overseeing employee conduct, she was routinely dismissed whenever she tried to report misconduct by fellow executives, according to a new lawsuit.
“There were just instances of just grossly unprofessional behavior; intoxication at work and leaving work, and obviously going somewhere where we became intoxicated and came back. [I was] unable to track someone down because they were at a club of, you know, a certain type,” Arnold described in the lawsuit and to CBS News Texas.
Allegations of unequal pay and stock disparities
Arnold says she was also in charge of salaries, and claims in the lawsuit, the company withheld millions of dollars in stocks from her and her female colleagues.
“In my position, I was given those documents. So, in looking at it, I noticed that there were only male names on that document. Five female vice presidents were left off that list. We received nothing. Myself being one of them,” she said.
CBS News Texas 
Arnold says she complained about the stocks and was given a package worth around $200,000. She then alleged she complained about discrimination and harassment and was fired months later.
“It’s about making sure someone is held accountable for how myself and other women were treated at that company. I am a mother, and I have a daughter. I don’t want her to go through this,” she said.
Copart denies allegations in legal filing
CBS News Texas contacted Copart repeatedly for an interview or response to our questions, and has not heard back. However, Copart’s law firm filed a response to her initial EEOC complaint in 2023.
In that filing, the law firm states in part:
“Copart fired Arnold because, on multiple occasions, Arnold used her position of significant authority and access to sensitive and sometimes personal employee information to violate — and threaten to continue violating — Copart’s confidentiality policy. [BUTT] “At no point during Arnold’s entire employment with Copart did Arnold ever assert a complaint of any alleged gender discrimination” .. and that Arnold created several fictional complaints.”
Text messages and testimony support claims, attorney says
“What makes this case particularly compelling is the documentary evidence,” Arnold’s attorney, Rogge Dunn, said.
He shared what he says is a text message from Arnold, which he argues, confirms she did complain to Copart’s COO of gender discrimination in August of 20-21, 14 months before she was fired in October of 2022.
He also says other women have since come forward anonymously, sharing similar stories. A copy of one of those alleged messages reads, “Thank you for making them take accountability. I wish I could.”
Hoping for change
“The fact that she was head of HR, she complained, and they kept repeatedly telling her ‘Stand down, we’ve got it handled.’ Then, when you see the disparity of the millions of dollars of stock options and equity, that’s compelling evidence,” Dunn said.
Arnold hopes her story inspires other women to come forward and creates what she argues is a better culture in her former company.
“It felt like a family at one point. I hope someday they make the changes that they need to,” Arnold said.
