Former Aide Accuses Councilman Holden of Sexual Harassment : Complaint: Ex-field deputy files claim for $500,000 in damages. Politician denies the charges and vows to take legal action against her.

A former aide to Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden accused him of sexual harassment and discrimination in a complaint filed Tuesday that seeks $500,000 in damages for four years of alleged verbal and physical mistreatment.

Carla Cavalier, 32, also alleges in the complaint, filed with the state Fair Employment and Housing Department, that she was wrongfully fired in April after repeatedly admonishing Holden for sexual remarks and advances, including fondling.

Holden denied the former field deputy’s accusations and said she voluntarily resigned. He also accused her of harassment and vowed to take legal action against her.

“To be a politician today is to be a target for any disgruntled individual who wants to throw darts,” Holden said in a statement released by his office. “The allegations made by Ms. Carla Cavalier are all false, and I am not going to answer any of these so-called allegations because I have not yet been served with a copy of the suit.”

In a brief interview, Holden declined to discuss Cavalier’s charges in detail. Instead, he described his accuser as “nuts” and her allegations “all lies.” He labeled the complaint a concoction of her attorney, Melanie Lomax, a former city police commissioner and longtime ally of Mayor Tom Bradley--Holden’s political nemesis.

“This is all Melanie Lomax,” Holden said, contending that Lomax was angry with him for missing a recent council vote to make her a city Water and Power Department commissioner.

Although Lomax alerted the media to the sexual harassment complaint against Holden, she denied that the charges were politically motivated. “This is what I do for a living,” the civil rights attorney said during an interview, “and I am not going to turn down a good case because I was a city commissioner and this involves a councilman.”

Cavalier could not be reached for comment about her complaint, which also was filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission.

Cavalier said in the complaint that she joined Holden’s staff as a receptionist in April, 1988, after serving six years in the Army. She saw the council office job, she said, as a career opportunity, especially after winning a promotion to field deputy--a job she viewed as “a steppingstone to other Civil Service positions.”

Instead, Cavalier said, her new post subjected her to sexual harassment, discrimination and, finally, firing.

“During my period of employment with Councilman Nate Holden, I was humiliated, embarrassed and offended by his rampant and hostile verbal and sexual attacks on me. Councilman Holden personally created, and fostered with other male staff members, a sexually charged atmosphere . . . ,” Cavalier said in the complaint.

Cavalier alleges that Holden often stared and made suggestive statements, including: “Come here, Sugar,” “Let me see what you have on, Sugar,” “Turn around for me, Sugar,” and “Um, Um, you look good, Sugar.

“While saying this, he had a leering look on his face and would be looking my body up and down, dwelling on my breasts, my buttocks, my legs and my pelvic area. . . . Very often he would run his hand down the back of my head and neck in a suggestive manner that mortified me and made me feel degraded,” she said.

After five months of objecting to his advances, Cavalier alleges, Holden accused her of being a hostile and unfriendly person who “could not get along with anybody.” Then, she said, he transferred her to one of his district offices and promoted her to assistant field deputy.

But whenever she encountered Holden, the sexual harassment would resume, Cavalier said.

At the office’s 1991 Christmas party, she said, Holden took her hand and tried to pull her toward him as if for a kiss. Also last year, she says, he brushed his fingers across her breast, later telling her he was attempting to look at a pin she was wearing.

And in July, 1990, she said, Holden approached her from behind as she stood in the office and fondled her buttocks before touching her vest. When she confronted him, Cavalier alleges, Holden laughed and said, “Come here, Sugar. I won’t hurt you.”

Cavalier said that because of their confrontations, the councilman compared her with Anita Hill, the Oklahoma law professor who last year tried to upend the Supreme Court appointment of Clarence Thomas by accusing him of sexual harassment and misconduct.

After Hill’s nationally televised testimony, Cavalier said, a male staff member confided that Holden had gathered the men in his office to warn them about Cavalier.

Despite Cavalier’s complaint that Holden fired her because because he “decided I was too great a risk,” Holden said Cavalier resigned voluntarily and his office released an April 14 letter with her signature that announces her resignation.

“I cannot adequately express the adventurism I have experienced while being a part of your staff. I have enjoyed this opportunity more than I can express,” the letter says in part.

Lomax, however, said an April 3 letter to Cavalier from her immediate supervisor warned that she would be fired April 23 unless she chose to resign.