Harassment hurts

Score one for the ladies. Sexual harassment lawsuits are alive and

well in California.

This is the story of Carol Christopher, Julie Bhend, and Carmella

Chamara, who alleged they were harassed by their boss, Thomas Harvey,

while working at the National Education Assn. Apparently Harvey spent

a good bit of his time physically intimidating female employees, not

to mention screaming at them.

Fortunately for the women they had an independent witness in that

one of the male employees of the company was able to corroborate

their claims. In the year 2000, the women filed charges against their

employer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The judge hearing the case, U.S. District Judge James Singleton,

dismissed the case finding that no reasonable jury could conclude

that the harassment in this case was due to the sex or gender of the

victims. Fortunately, the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals

disagreed, finding that, in effect, you don’t have to be motivated by

lust or some other form of sexual desire in order to harass a female.

This is not a case about sexually suggestive comments or lust after

these women. The theory of this case is that Harvey treated these

women a certain way because they are women and he knew he could get

away with it and that he did not treat men similarly.

This is a different use of the sexual harassment statute, however,

according to the Court of Appeals it is valid just the same. Judge

Singleton, the District Court Judge, had ruled that Harvey was in

fact “rude, overbearing, obnoxious, loud, vulgar and generally

unpleasant,” however, he decided against the women in that he

believed that Harvey’s behavior would need to be driven by sexual

desire, lust, or something similar in order to qualify as

discrimination against the women because of their gender.

This case is really about the fact that it was easier for Harvey

to bully women so he did so. The appellate court opinion, written by

Circuit Judge Alfred T. Goodwin, held that this is a case “...in

which an abusive bully takes advantage of a traditionally female

workplace because he is more comfortable when bullying women then

when bullying men.” Sounds like quite a guy, this Harvey.

Sexual harassment does not have to come from lust or desire; it

doesn’t have to be about what a woman looks like or involve

physically touching a woman.

If you are abusive, be it verbally or physically and you tend to

abuse women rather than men because it’s easier for you to abuse

women rather than men, as perhaps the male employee would punch you

in the nose, you have violated the laws against sexual harassment put

forth by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

This lawsuit is now back in business and the women will have their

day in court.

* CHARLES J. UNGER is a criminal defense attorney in the Glendale

law firm of Flanagan, Unger & Grover, and a therapist at the Foothill

Centre for Personal and Family Growth. He may be reached at (818)

244-8694 or at o7www.charlieunger.com.

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