Onetime Prosecutor Claims Sex Harassment

A former deputy district attorney said Monday that she was fired from her $59,000-a-year job in the Van Nuys prosecutor’s office for refusing to have sex with her boss and that her complaints went unheeded by Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner.

Colette Facio charged that Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew W. Diamond, who was her supervisor in 1988 and 1989 when she handled preliminary hearings in Van Nuys Municipal Court, “pressured me nonstop for more than a year to have sex with him.”

Diamond categorically denied the charges and a Reiner spokesperson said that Facio was fired “in response to complaints from six judges” about her courtroom behavior and because of “numerous instances of unprofessional conduct and incompetence.”

Sandi Gibbons, a Reiner aide, also said that Facio’s sexual harassment charges were “throughly investigated and found to be baseless.”

The allegations have surfaced as part of Facio’s attempt to get the county Civil Service Commission to reverse her firing. Although a hearing officer is considering the case, Facio held a press conference Monday to focus attention on her charges. Facio said she was making her charges public to take advantage of the “heightened awareness of this issue because of the recent Senate hearings on Clarence Thomas.”

She said there were “quite a few similarities” between her and Anita Hill, an Oklahoma law professor who claimed during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her while they worked together at two federal agencies.

Facio, who was fired from the district attorney’s Van Nuys staff in January, said Diamond fondled her, joked repeatedly about performing sexual acts with her and got her fired when she refused to have sex with him.

Facio said that Diamond would come up behind her in the office and “make really crude gestures like we were having sex. And he always was talking about oral sex with me.”

Diamond said Facio’s charges were thoroughly looked into and found to be without foundation.

Facio said she could not get her supervisors to act on her accusations despite filing eight written grievances against Diamond.

She acknowledged that her work performance fell off and that she clashed frequently with judges beginning in 1988, two years after becoming a deputy district attorney.

“To have your supervisor pressuring you and belittling you--he would even come into a courtroom and interrupt and undercut me--is an experience that is not consistent with good work performance,” she said.

When the hearing resumes Wednesday, Facio said she would call several witnesses to corroborate portions of the alleged harassment.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Sullivan, who is presenting the case for terminating Facio, said he has called seven judges who have been highly critical of Facio.

Hearing Officer Leonard S. Kimmell said that he expects testimony to end this week. He said he will make a recommendation within 40 days to the county Civil Service Commission, which has the power to uphold Facio’s firing or reinstate her.