Sex Harassment Suit Targets Fire Officials : Complaint: The city attorney says a former secretary’s charges were investigated and are untrue.

A former secretary with the Pomona Fire Department has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the city, claiming that firefighters handcuffed her, kissed her, tried to unhook her bra and made sexually offensive remarks.

The complaint, filed in Pomona Superior Court by Irma Rodriguez, claims that the sexual harassment continued for 16 months and that, when she complained to city officials, they blamed her.

But City Atty. Arnold Glasman said officials not only listened to her allegations when she first made them early last year but also hired an independent counsel to investigate. Glasman said that he could not release the findings of that investigation but that the charges leveled in the suit are untrue.

“Allegations are easy to make,” he said. “Proving them is different.”

Glasman said the district attorney’s office also looked into the allegations without finding grounds for charges.

Rodriguez, 32, was hired in 1980 as a typist-clerk and rose to the position of secretary to then-Fire Chief Tom Fee. She claims in her suit that she became a target of “inappropriate conduct” in December, 1989, and that incidents occurred periodically until she left her job under emotional stress in mid-March, 1991.

According to the suit, Rodriguez was handcuffed during working hours on at least four occasions. In addition, the suit says, firefighters kissed her without permission, put their hands under her dress, tried to unfasten her bra and made sexually offensive statements.

Rodriguez claims that, after she complained to city officials, they took no action but accused her of instigating the events, lying about them and being sexually involved with firefighters.

The suit names eight firefighters as defendants. Mark John Tundis, attorney for Rodriguez, said that Division Chiefs Lynn LaRochelle and Ron Robertson were named because they were running the department when the alleged events occurred but that they are not accused of personal acts of harassment. Others named are Battalion Chief Lynn Clark, Capt. Russ Bohse, fire Investigator Jim DeSouza and Inspectors Ron Gomez, Ruben Triana and Clifford Evans.

The district attorney’s office in April rejected sexual battery charges alleged by Rodriguez against Bohse, DeSouza and Triana. According to a report by the deputy district attorney who investigated the case, Rodriguez accused Bohse and DeSouza of unfastening her bra, handcuffing her, and grabbing at her legs and breasts in December, 1990, and accused Triana of grabbing her breasts in March, 1991.

The report said Bohse, DeSouza and Triana denied the allegations and claimed that the charges were motivated by their opposition to Fee. They said the former chief had given Rodriguez special privileges at work. The council removed Fee as chief in July, 1990, and gave him a position as fire safety officer after a group of firefighters complained about his management style and accused him of favoritism. He is no longer with the department.

The prosecutor’s report said that investigators interviewed six co-workers suggested by Rodriguez but that only one offered any evidence to support her allegations. The report noted that, although the complaint of sexual battery could not be established, the district attorney’s office did not investigate her claim of sexual harassment because “such conduct is not a violation of criminal law.”

Bohse said he was surprised that the suit was filed after the city and the district attorney had thoroughly investigated Rodriguez’s allegations and found no substantiation. The fire captain said some of the events alleged by Rodriguez “were taken out of context and others did not occur.”