City Offers Women Awards Not to File Sex Harassment Lawsuits

The city has offered damage awards to several women employees of the Police Department in exchange for promises that they will refrain from suing the city for sexual harassment in a scandal that has seen 10 others file suit.

City Manager Kevin Murphy would not disclose how many women had been offered money or how much money each had been offered. But he said that some women have accepted offers and others are considering them.

Police Department employees said they believe there have been about a dozen offers and that the awards are as high as $25,000 for some individuals.

The offers came after the women told the city’s investigator of their experiences at the department. The city launched its investigation into sexual harassment at the department in response to the original lawsuit against the city, Capt. Anthony Villa and former Chief Arb Campbell.

In that suit, filed Sept. 24 in Superior Court, the Police Department is accused of being “a hotbed of sexually offensive conduct.” It includes a dispatcher’s claim that Campbell and Villa raped her after a police party in 1981.