Employee at Police Stables Settles Suit on Harassment

The San Diego City Council agreed Monday to pay $90,000 to a female civilian police employee who alleged she was sexually harassed for years by a longtime officer working at the police horse stables in Balboa Park.

Denise Molina alleged that Officer Larry Triplett harassed her from the time she started working at the stables in 1984 until she took an indefinite leave of absence in August, 1990.

Triplett was suspended and transferred from his job at the stables to a patrol position, according to Everett Bobbitt, his attorney during his administrative hearings with the department. Bobbitt said Triplett has decided not to appeal the punishment to the city’s Civil Service Commission, on Bobbitt’s advice.

The sexual harassment suit alleges that Molina, a stable hand, was subject to “excessive and intimidating contact by Triplett, excessive and unnecessary physical contact, unwanted comments and threats to (Molina’s) and other women’s physical safety.”

For example, the suit alleges, Triplett once walked up behind Molina and poked her in the side of her breast. After she yelled, “Knock it off!” he walked away laughing.

At other times, according to the suit, he grabbed her breasts, pulled open the top of her shirt and looked inside, saying, “I love you.” Once, in retaliation, she poured ice water in his lap.

Molina said Triplett sprayed her with water from a hose and said, “Oh, look, a wet T-shirt contest,” followed by, “Are you cold or just glad to see me?” Taken together, the alleged harassment caused mental anguish and shock, the suit alleged.

Although Molina complained to Triplett’s supervisors for five years, nothing was done, said Paula S. Rosenstein, her attorney.

“The harassment was pervasive and longstanding, and the department closed its eyes for a long time to what was going on,” Rosenstein said. “It wasn’t until my client was aggressive about making him stop that it ended. They should have known this cop was bad news, and her complaint should have been taken seriously.”

Rosenstein said she and her client “felt comfortable” about the settlement.

Bobbitt said he had read the entire administrative package the Police Department submitted in the Triplett case and that much of what was alleged wasn’t mentioned.

“One time, she was in a truck and he accidentally touched her breast when they turned a corner,” he said. “Then there was some horseplay--no pun intended--and people were spraying each other with water, and some people got wet.