Sex Harassment Claim Leveled at Carson Director by Ballet Leader

The director of the Carson fine arts program has been accused of sexual harassment by the leader of a ballet troupe who was criticized by the city’s Fine Arts Commission for allegedly failing to fulfill the terms of a $20,000 performance contract.

The accusation against Community Services Manager Joe Wolfson was made in a May 31 letter by Cory-Jeanne Houck-Murakami, co-artistic director of the Pacific American Ballet Theatre, a dance troupe based in Gardena. The group gave six city-sponsored performances of the Nutcracker ballet in December at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Houck-Murakami alleged that Wolfson made suggestive remarks and repeatedly touched and fondled her between July, 1989, and April, 1990, and then became hostile when rebuffed.

Wolfson termed the accusations “outright lies” motivated by sour grapes.

“I was the one who called them up and said that the commission was not happy with the performance and did not want them to perform in Carson again,” he said. He added that he had told city officials he was willing to take a lie-detector test on the allegations.

The Carson Fine Arts Commission issued a statement Tuesday, unanimously supporting Wolfson as “an outstanding employee and representative of the commission for 12 years” who was the target of a “slanderous attack . . . when his only ‘crime’ was protecting the city’s best interest and reputation.”

The statement condemned Houck-Murakami and her mother, Mariko Murakami, the troupe’s other co-artistic director. The letter said they had failed to deliver what they had promised concerning the troupe’s performances.

According to the statement, the pair had said they would provide 16 professional dancers, two international soloists and an orchestra. “Nothing that Pacific American Ballet Theatre promised materialized,” the statement said.

Stu Christie, manager of the Cal State Dominguez Hills theater said that as an example, the troupe’s music was provided by a tape recording, not an orchestra. Nor did the cast number 16, he said.

“There were not even enough cast members present to completely cast the show,” Christie said, “People kept switching roles to the point that it was difficult to follow the story.”

The commission’s statement added that Houck-Murakami and her mother “continually created problems for the city staff, university staff and members of the community with their uncooperative attitude.” It said the complaint against Wolfson is “nothing more than another attempt by these people to manipulate the city financially a second time.”

Michael Yamamoto, a member of the Pacific American board of directors, said in a statement Wednesday that the company was proud of “the 1989 production of ‘The Nutcracker,’ its relationship with the community at large and each and every dancer associated with the company, including Cory-Jeanne (Houck-) Murakami.”

Although the dispute has simmered quietly for months, it did not become public until this week.

City Personnel Director Donald A. Rae said in a statement Tuesday that the city had first learned of the accusations Jan. 16 when Houck-Murakami talked to him and Deputy City Administrator Scott Yotsuya. The Fine Arts Commission criticized the Pacific American performances of the Nutcracker on Jan. 8.

Rae said the city had not been able to follow up on Houck-Murakami’s allegations then, or after the May 31 letter, because she had not cooperated with city investigators. “Until that has been done, no judgment can be made on the merits or lack thereof of the complaint,” Rae said.

In a letter Tuesday to Houck-Murakami, Wolfson’s attorney, Noel Shipman, said the ballerina would be the target of a defamation lawsuit “if you insist on further defaming Mr. Wolfson.”

Houck-Murakami was not available for comment, but her mother said in an interview that Deputy City Administrator Scott Yotsuya had been told about the accusations in November and December, before the Fine Arts Commission had criticized the performances.

Murakami added that she and her daughter did not pursue the accusations initially because “we were trying to keep everything on an even keel. I did not want a huge fight going in the city at the same time we were putting on the Nutcracker. I felt it would jeopardize everything we were doing.”

Murakami said she and her daughter did not pursue the allegations after meeting with Yotsuya Jan. 16 because she had no money to hire an attorney. “We still don’t have an attorney,” she said Wednesday.

In her letter, Houck-Murakami said that between July, 1989, and April, 1990, Wolfson “bothered me by a constant barrage of unwanted and unsolicited gestures; with crude suggestive sexual remarks, touching me, fondling my breasts and legs, and also threatening me by grabbing my throat several times. Mr. Wolfson subjected me to repeated vivid descriptions of his sexual ability to perform with me. At all times, I rebuffed and rebuked his advances.”

Murakami said in an interview that she had witnessed and heard Wolfson abuse her daughter. She declined to give detailed information about the alleged incidents. The complaint also does not relate specific details.

Wolfson attacked the account, and Murakami’s statement that she had witnessed the alleged incidents, as inherently unbelievable.

“Why would a mother allow someone to molest her daughter and strangle her daughter in front of her without doing anything?” he asked.

“Where did all this happen? We know it didn’t happen in my office. It couldn’t. The office is open. Everyone sees and hears what goes on in this office.”

Pat Tester, a former city secretary whose desk was next to Wolfson’s office, said activities in Wolfson’s office are easily visible through glass windows and that she never saw Wolfson engage in any improper activity in his office.

“Absolutely nothing was going on,” said Tester, who left her city job several months ago.

Joan Reiner, an assistant to Wolfson who was directly involved in working with the Pacific American Nutcracker production, said Houck-Murakami and her mother “were unhappy about a lot of things. If they made too much noise, someone would complain. They would get upset about that. I assumed they had artistic temperaments.”

But, she said, “none of the complaints touched on Joe Wolfson. Joe is a very outspoken person, but he wasn’t with them that much.”

Rae, the city’s personnel director, said no other complaints have been filed against the city naming Wolfson in connection with sexual harassment.