Holden Got Ex-Receptionist a Home Rent-Free

Frustrated by months of alleged unwanted touching and offensive comments from Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, his former receptionist made a hat with initials denoting “Don’t [expletive] Touch Me” and the words NO , NO , NO painted all over it to wear around her house, the woman’s lawyers said Tuesday.

“She was completely upset. She was being harassed. She was being intimidated. She was being subjected to some very vicious treatment,” attorney Dan Stormer said of his client Marlee M. Beyda, a former art student who worked for Holden for about 18 months and is one of two women suing him. “That was one of the ways she expressed it.”

The white baseball cap with the brightly colored “NOs” was introduced in the courtroom Tuesday during the testimony of one of Beyda’s friends. Lawyers were not allowed to explain its meaning to the court Tuesday, but said they plan to discuss it further when Beyda testifies later this week.

Holden and his lawyer, Skip Miller, said they had never seen the hat before, but as they walked away from the courtroom, members of the Women’s Action Coalition chanted, “Holden’s guilty!” and “Don’t [expletive] touch me, Nate!”

Earlier in the day, Holden was on the stand, accusing Beyda of fabricating stories of harassment after she left his employ.

“They are lies,” Holden, 66, said of Beyda’s charges that he touched her chest, buttocks and waist and offered to advance her career in exchange for sex. “I didn’t do it.”

As Holden defended himself against the allegations by Beyda--one of three former employees who say Holden sexually harassed them--some odd details emerged about the inner workings of the 10th District council office.

Holden acknowledged that he often called or saw Beyda late at night, gave her a scarf and jogging suit and helped her procure a rent-free house in Mandeville Canyon, but said none of these things were unusual.

“Anyone who knows me knows I call late at night,” he testified. “I gave all my staff gifts.”

Miller said an explanation of Beyda’s rental situation would be forthcoming as Holden continues testifying today.

Holden said he hired Beyda as a clerk-typist after they met at a Valentine’s Day banquet where she was a waitress, even though she failed a typing test. He said he had hired another employee after meeting him in a drugstore parking lot and talking for several hours on a street corner.

As the trial ground forward Tuesday, with hours of tedious testimony being interrupted by numerous objections, Superior Court Judge Raymond D. Mireles refused to release two top Holden aides, Louis White and Ira Massey, as defendants in the lawsuit, which also names the city of Los Angeles.

Witness Carla Cavalier--whose own lawsuit against Holden and the city is scheduled for trial in Orange County in January--testified Tuesday that White and Massey were among the male staff members in Holden’s office who routinely made “guttural sounds,” spoke in a “demeaning tone” and gave “lecherous looks” to Beyda and other female co-workers. Another staff member, Cruz Nunez, often tried to plant wet kisses on women, and once landed one on Beyda’s hand, she testified.

“It went on in the office all the time,” Cavalier said, explaining that men muttered “Mmm, hmm,” or “Ooh, baby,” when women walked by.

“The would ask [Beyda] to stand up, turn around. They would view her body like it was a piece of meat,” she said, adding that the plaintiff often complained about the situation. “I remember her saying that she didn’t like it. She said that she didn’t like the way they made her feel,” Cavalier said.

Holden said outside court he has “no concern about what any of them have to say. . . . This started three years ago and I’m still standing. They hit me with everything but the ring post, and I’m still here.”