Sex Harassment Case Called a First : Civil Rights: An Asian-American woman is awarded $30,000 in damages from the accounting firm she worked for.

In what was described as the first employee sexual harassment case won by an Asian-American woman under state civil rights laws, an administrative judge has ordered a Pasadena accounting firm to pay $30,000 in damages to its former receptionist, state officials said Friday.

The decision by the Fair Employment and Housing Commission also recognized that cultural beliefs held by the employee, Denise Okamoto, kept her from speaking out for six years about a boss who, on several occasions, fondled her feet while she answered telephone calls and engaged in acts of harassment “virtually on a daily basis,” according to the commission report and a state lawyer.

Richard Tuckley, a partner in the accounting firm of Guill, Bankenbaker & Lawson and the focus of the complaint, denies engaging in any harassment and said he believed that the seriousness of the matter had been exaggerated.

Steven Owyang, legal affairs secretary of the commission, described the Okamoto case as a first but attributed that partly to the fact that “the vast majority of filings never make it to hearing.”

At a downtown news conference, Okamoto, 28, said the harassment began in 1980 while she was a receptionist at the accountant firm. When Tuckley, 60, began telling sexual jokes to Okamoto, who was then 18, she was advised by her mother--also an employee at the firm--to shrug them off, according to the report.

At the time, Midori Okamoto--an 18-year employee of the company whose duties included supervising her daughter--told the younger Okamoto that complaints about Tuckley might jeopardize their jobs.

During a commission hearing, Denise Okamoto told Administrative Judge Rosalyn Chapman that as sexual overtures from Tuckley intensified, he revealed that he had a “foot fetish.”

Beginning in 1982, he entered her small, isolated cubicle on several occasions and “got down on his hands and knees to kiss and stroke my feet while I talked with clients on the phone,” she said.

Dick Osumi, legal counsel at the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, cited 14 other types of harassment that occurred over Okamoto’s six years with the firm. He said the complaint filed by the department with the commission included accounts of harassment on more than 200 occasions.

“My mother said I should try to not pay attention to it,” Okamoto said Friday. “She told me just to laugh. She said that’s the (Asian) way to deal with hardships.”

The mother and daughter relationship became strained as the harassment intensified, she said.

Other employees testified at the hearing that the incidents took place, but there were differing views on Tuckley’s intent.

Okamoto said she and her mother repeatedly asked Tuckley to refrain, but when he persisted, the daughter was advised by her mother to gaman , the Japanese word for endure.

“I told her I wanted to quit,” Okamoto said.

Tuckley said in a phone interview Friday that Midori Okamoto has filed a civil suit against his firm for wrongful discharge. She left the company in 1986.

“All this came about because the mother took an extended vacation during the busy season,” Tuckley said. “That year we didn’t give her a raise. She quit. Three months later the daughter quit. Then all of a sudden, we get these charges of sexual harassment. The way I see it, the mother talked the daughter into doing this.”

In the commission hearing, Tuckley acknowledged that he had engaged in some of the disputed behavior--telling sexual jokes, showing stag films at a company retreat and brushing up against the former receptionist.

But he said the accounts given by Okamoto and witnesses were taken out of context. He admitted to making comments that were sexual in nature to Denise Okamoto but said he meant them to be humorous.

Denise Okamoto said she has learned during the complaint filing that sexual harassment can be perceived differently by the person committing the offense and the victim.

“It does something to you psychologically,” she said. “People tried to tell me, ‘It’s, like, all in your mind.’ That’s just not the case sometimes.”