College District to Review Handling of Harassment Claims : Education: Trustees’ comments come after a jury awarded $186,000 to an instructor who accused officials of slander.

Ventura County Community College District officials will re-examine their handling of sexual harassment claims in light of a jury’s finding that they mishandled a 1989 investigation, officials said Tuesday.

“Absolutely, we will be revisiting this,” said Pete Tafoya, president of the district’s board of trustees. He said he would call for a “stepped-up effort in regard to training of managers” in how to handle complaints of sexual harassment.

Tafoya’s comments came in response to the Ventura County Superior Court jury’s decision Monday to award $186,000 to Moorpark College instructor Kirk Aiken, who alleged that the district had slandered him.

According to Aiken’s suit, the district was biased and inept in its investigation of a sexual harassment complaint filed by Pamela Zwehl-Burke, a former part-time instructor at Moorpark College.

Zwehl-Burke alleged that Aiken had approached her before a class, embraced her and made sexual comments. But in testimony last week, witnesses differed as to whether there was an embrace, how long the alleged encounter lasted, and what was said.

The district investigation resulted in a letter of reprimand by Vicki Bortolussi, vice president for instruction. The letter, which was placed in Aiken’s personnel file, said there was evidence to support the sexual harassment charge and warned that further such conduct could result in severe discipline.

Jurors said Tuesday that the district was clearly biased against Aiken. They said district officials failed to interview witnesses suggested by Aiken. In some cases, words were added to witnesses’ written statements to make them more damning, jurors said.

“It was out of control,” juror Patti Ormsby of Thousand Oaks said. “It was done from a feminist viewpoint. He didn’t have a chance.”

Juror John Kazmer of Oak View agreed. “It was like a lynch mob,” he said.

“The jurors believed something happened, but it was not harassment,” Kazmer said as the jurors left court Tuesday. They were discharged after Aiken decided not to seek punitive damages in addition to the $186,000 award.

“I would expect the board of trustees to wake up and say, ‘We’d better get organized and we’d better handle these cases in a professional manner,’ ” Kazmer said.

Board President Tafoya said that in the past few years, the district has adopted policies on how to conduct sexual harassment investigations. “We need to renew our efforts,” Tafoya said.

Trustee Gregory Cole said the district has a detailed policy on how complaints should be investigated. However, he said, “the laws in this area are ever-changing. . . . These are not easy matters to investigate.”

Cole said government agencies are in a “precarious position.”

“If there are complaints and we investigate them, then juries can find against us and assess damages,” he said. “If we don’t follow through, and later there is an incident, then we’ll be sued, as we are in another case.”

Cole apparently was referring to a lawsuit filed by a woman who said that a Spanish teacher at the college molested her. The teacher, Alex Paredes, was convicted in February of two counts of sexual assault.

The suit, which is pending, alleges that the district kept Paredes on the staff even though officials knew of “his propensity for sexually molesting young female students”--an allegation that the district has denied.

Juror Ormsby said the verdict should not discourage victims of sexual harassment from filing complaints. “I don’t think that if you have a strong incident, this would deter you,” she said. “This incident, as it was described to us, was not enough.”

The jurors--seven women and five men--deliberated for about six hours before reaching their verdicts, but several said Tuesday that there was almost no disagreement. The only debate was about how much to assess each of the defendants, they said. In the end, Zwehl-Burke was ordered to pay Aiken $1,000, while Bortolussi and the district each were ordered to pay $92,500.

Cole said the district will pay Bortolussi’s costs because she was acting in her official capacity.

Juror Barbara Olson of Thousand Oaks said allegations of sexual harassment should not be taken lightly by the accused or the accuser.

“The message of the verdict is this,” Olson said. “If you’re going to bring suit against someone, it’s very important to have your facts straight and witnesses who are believable. This is a very serious matter to accuse someone of. You don’t do it lightly.”

And those who investigate such complaints, she said, “must do it without bias, in a very professional, very thorough manner.”