Mission Official Resigns After Harassment Suit

Mission San Juan Capistrano’s chief operating officer has left his post amid accusations of sexual harassment brought against him by a female employee, a lawyer for the alleged victim said Tuesday.

Robert McCreary, 40, of Mission Viejo, considered the top lay person at the 215-year-old institution, has been in charge of the mission’s day-to-day business for the past 17 months.

But on Friday, just two weeks after a civil complaint was filed in Orange County Superior Court, McCreary had departed, according to attorney Glen R. Mozingo, who represents Donna Fritz, a data-entry operator at the historic site.

“We were notified Friday that (Mr. McCreary) was no longer employed by the mission,” Mozingo said, adding that Fritz had discussed the matter during a telephone call to her from Msgr. Paul Martin.

Frank Liberatore, an attorney representing McCreary, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Brian McInerney, a spokesman for Martin and the mission, would neither confirm nor deny that McCreary’s employment had ended.

“Mission San Juan Capistrano will not be issuing any official statement until a proper time,” McInerney said.

Mozingo said the lack of comment from McCreary, his attorneys and mission lawyers appears to be the result of guidelines handed down by mission officials at a meeting earlier this week to tell employees about McCreary’s departure.

“They were restricted in speaking about it, even to their spouses, or suffer the consequences,” Mozingo said. “That seems to be a regular theme there, a pretty closed society.”

Mozingo filed a lawsuit May 31, alleging that Fritz had been the victim of battery, sexual harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

A temporary restraining order to prevent McCreary from coming within 20 feet of Fritz was denied by Superior Court Judge Francisco F. Firmat, however. Instead, all sides agreed to other conditions, which the judge ordered them not to discuss.

Mozingo said McCreary’s exit from the mission does “absolutely nothing” to change Fritz’s lawsuit. An answer to his complaint is due in two weeks and depositions will then be taken, Mozingo said.