Official in Record Industry Suit May Rejoin the Business : Pop music: Veteran executive Mike Bone may accept a high-ranking post at Def American Recordings, sources say. He quietly settled a sexual harassment suit in New York this week.

Record industry veteran Mike Bone, who was sued last July for sexual harassment by a female assistant at Island Records, is about to accept an executive position at Def American Recordings, sources said Friday. Rumors about the apparent hiring spread through the record industry here this week.

Neither Bone nor Def American owner Rick Rubin could be reached Friday for comment, but a spokeswoman for the Burbank-based company said that Bone has not been hired at this point. The company, which is affiliated with Warner Bros. Records, has been criticized by feminist groups for distributing allegedly misogynistic albums by such artists as Andrew Dice Clay and the Geto Boys.

“I don’t like dealing with speculation,” Heidi Robinson, head of media relations at Def American, said Friday. “I know that Rick really likes and admires Mike, but I have no idea what they discuss in private. All I know at this point is that Mike Bone is not an employee at Def American.”

News of Bone’s possible employment at Def American comes only days after the veteran executive and Island Records quietly resolved the sexual harassment case with Lori Harris, a former administrative assistant of Bone during his yearlong tenure as president of Island.

According to several sources at Island and elsewhere in the industry, Bone was accused of making sexual advances toward Harris at a 1990 industry party and firing her the next day for refusing to accede to his demands. Bone denied the charges.

Harris, who sued Bone and Island in July for sexual harassment and wrongful discharge under New York State human-rights laws, reportedly settled the case out of court this week in New York for a five-figure sum. Representatives for Island and Harris both acknowledged that the case had been settled with no admission of liability for either side, but refused to discuss terms of the deal due to a confidentiality clause in the agreement.

Several female executives reacted with surprise and anger Friday to the news of Bone’s possible re-emergence in the industry, but declined to comment citing career reasons.

“There should be one and only one way that these guys can return to work,” Carole Childs, vice president of A&R; for Elektra on the West Coast, said Friday. “And that would be after proper sexual therapy. That’s the only thing to care about, so they don’t hurt others.”

Tammy Bruce, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, suggested that Bone’s possible return to the music business “is proof that the good old boy network is still intact.”

“I think it’s pathetic and disgusting that this guy is being considered for a job,” Bruce said. “He settles a sex harassment suit and the next day he’s up for hire. A man like this should be working as a clerk in a drugstore, not in a management position at a record company.”

Bone, a music industry veteran who has been president of three record companies in three years, left Island in December, 1990, a few months after the alleged incident of harassment, to become co-president of Mercury Records. Island officials said Bone’s departure was unrelated to the alleged incident. Mercury and Island both are owned by PolyGram.

He was dismissed from Mercury on Nov.1, two days before publication of an article about sexual harassment in The Times. A PolyGram spokeswoman said that the timing of his exit was “an unfortunate coincidence” and had nothing to do with allegations of sexual harassment.

Benjamin Schonbrun, an attorney who represents Penny Muck, a former Geffen Records secretary who filed an unrelated sexual harassment case against Geffen Records in November, thinks that Bone’s quick re-emergence indicates a reluctance on the part of industry executives to take the sexual harassment issue seriously.

“The arrogance and contempt shown by companies toward their female employees obviously continues,” Schonbrun said Friday. “When these bastions of male domination are hit with large money judgments by juries who are outraged, maybe then they will understand that women have a right to be treated fairly and with respect in the workplace.”