Former Employee Sues Angels for Harassment

A former Angels employee who alleges she was fired for complaining about harassment and discrimination in the organization filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the team.

Natalia Sweeney, who is Latina, sought unspecified compensatory and general damages in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

An Angels spokesman was not available for comment.

Ed Fox, Sweeney’s attorney, said his client was fired from her job as an administrative assistant in the team’s Anaheim office Oct. 22. Since 1991, he said, she repeatedly complained about discrimination.

Fox said Sweeney was subjected to verbal abuse and sexual harassment. Sweeney told The Times in a story published Nov. 19 that colleagues and supervisors made fun of her diminutive size and heritage and made “humiliating” sexual comments.

“It was a living nightmare working for them,” she told The Times. “I am a broken woman because of what they did to me.”

Fox alleged the harassment included incidents in which “one guy . . . would pretend to masturbate with a trophy in front of her,” then comment about it.

Fox said Sweeney was told she was being fired for “economic reasons,” but added that other employees with less seniority and who held similar positions retained their jobs.

He said Sweeney had been with the Angels for three years, but had never been reprimanded for her work until shortly before she was fired.

“The only two write-ups they had came out within two weeks of each other,” he said. “They were written by two different people and were totally inconsistent with each other.”

The suit, which names the club, along with Kevin Uhlich, John Sevano and Larry Babcock, alleges violation of the Fair Employment and Housing laws, wrongful termination, breach of implied covenant not to be discharged without good cause and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Both Uhlich and Sevano termed the charges of harassment “preposterous” in November’s story in The Times.