BUENA PARK : Sex Bias Charged by Ex-Policewoman

A former Buena Park police officer filed a sex discrimination suit against the department, contending that her colleagues harassed her and made it impossible for her to do her job.

Sandra Jean McClaren seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for what she said was rude and abusive treatment by her co-workers and superiors from September 1987, when she was hired, and October, 1989, when she quit.

McClaren’s lawyer, Carrie MacMillin, said McClaren resigned from her job because she could no longer tolerate the abuse.

Buena Park Police Department spokesman said the department’s policy is to make no comment on such matters.

Among the allegations in McClaren’s lawsuit filed Tuesday are that her male colleagues made sexually suggestive comments to her and began circulating a rumor that she was sexually promiscuous.

McClaren’s lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, said that Sgt. Jerry Smock asked her what sexual acts she would perform in order to be assigned another vehicle. On another occasion, the suit said, Smock told her that it was good that she was engaged because she “could be barefoot and pregnant instead of here.”

The lawsuit said Smock and Sgt. Terry Branum started a rumor that she could not perform her job, a rumor that reached her superiors and resulted in her transfer from weekday to weekend shifts, the lawsuit said.

Another sergeant, Jim Dixon, once told McClaren that she should be “cooking and cleaning for some man instead of working here,” the lawsuit said.