Masry Portrayed as No Hollywood Hero in Harassment Suit

Jurors in a sexual harassment case heard attorney Ed Masry portrayed far differently in court Friday than he was in the movie that made him famous as the good-guy employer of Erin Brockovich.

Masry, now mayor of Thousand Oaks, subjected newly hired attorney Kissandra Cohen to a barrage of crude sexual language and unwanted touching, Cohen’s lawyer, Dan Marino, said during opening statements in a Van Nuys courtroom.

Nothing improper took place, countered Norm Watkins, one of several lawyers defending Masry, 69, in the civil suit. Cohen, now 23, was fired from Masry’s law firm in December 1999 because she allegedly misrepresented her credentials when she was hired early that year, first as a $40-an-hour office clerk and then as a $120,000-a-year attorney after she passed the bar exam that summer, Watkins said.

Suggestive language from Masry and at least one other staff attorney was constant, Marino said. Cohen was humiliated, he said, when Masry handed her $50 in front of co-workers--repayment for office snacks purchased the previous day--and said, “That’s for the sexual favors last night.”

Masry and others in the firm of Masry&Vittitoe;, including movie namesake Brockovich, used constant sexual epithets and four-letter words, Marino told the jury.

James Brown, Cohen’s supervising attorney, repeatedly tried to get Cohen to date him, and left a lollipop in the shape of male private parts with a note for Cohen that said, “Suck on this,” Marino told the jury.

He said she “blew off” some of the activity that bothered her. On several occasions, when Masry rubbed her shoulders in her office or put his hand on her leg at a restaurant, she asked him to stop, but Masry continued, according to Marino.

Watkins dismissed the allegations as fabrications or overreactions. Cohen was fired, he said, because she lied about several work-related issues. She falsely claimed that she graduated at the top of her law school class, he said. She failed to apply for a morals certification required of newly minted lawyers by the state bar, and lied to the firm by saying that it had been delayed by a clerical error, Watkins said.

Cohen has been featured in print and broadcast stories as possibly the youngest practicing attorney in the United States. She said that since her firing by Masry 21/2 years ago, she has been unable to find a job with another law firm.

Marino said the presentation of his case will take up only a few of the 20 days the trial is expected to take. He told the jury that Masry, with a “platoon” of lawyers at his side, will spend the bulk of the trial trying to smear Cohen’s character.

Outside the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Stanley Weis- berg, Cohen said she is undaunted by that possibility.

“I feel I have to stand up for myself,” she said. “Rather than deal with the issues in the case, they want to attack me and compound what they’ve already done to me.”