Boss Says She Feels Violated by Sex Harassment Finding : Courts: Woman says she had only a professional relationship with man whom jury awarded $1 million.

A female chief financial officer accused of sexually harassing a male employee said Thursday that she feels “totally violated in every sense of the word” by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury’s award of more than $1 million to her alleged victim.

Maria Martinez, 39, denied that she had any kind of sexual relationship with Sabino Gutierrez, 33, despite his claims to the contrary and Tuesday’s finding by the jury.

“I have never seen Mr. Gutierrez as a man--I always saw him like my younger brother,” Martinez said as she sat with her hands clasped on top of her desk during a news conference.

In his lawsuit, Gutierrez maintained that Martinez began pressuring him to have sex shortly after he started working at California Acrylic Industries in Pomona, also known as Cal-Spas, in 1986.

Gutierrez accused Martinez of embracing him, kissing him, fondling his genitals and repeatedly telling him that her interest in him was sexual. He said the pressure resulted in him having sex with her at his house in 1988.

The jury agreed that he had been sexually harassed and had resigned as a result. It ordered Cal-Spas to pay Gutierrez $375,000 for emotional distress, $82,000 for economic losses and $550,000 in punitive damages. The jury also said Martinez should pay $10,000 in damages.

Cal-Spas plans to appeal the decision, said Mary Maloney Roberts, attorney for the company.

Chuck Hewitt, president of Cal-Spas, defended Martinez at the news conference. He called Gutierrez an “egoist” and praised Martinez as a good manager.

Hewitt, standing beside his wife, Teri, said Martinez has always had a great relationship with employees of Cal-Spas, which has about 1,300 workers.

Martinez, who is married and has two children, denied doing anything “that might have been misinterpreted” as more than a platonic, professional relationship with Gutierrez. His claim that they had sex at his house is a lie, she said.

Martinez said she thinks that Gutierrez alleged sexual harassment because she is a female manager who infringed on his “machismo.”

“Here is this young man who not only has to answer to a woman, but a Hispanic woman, a Mexican woman,” Martinez said.

Gutierrez mistook Martinez’s desire to help him move up the corporate ladder as a sexual overture, she and Hewitt said.

Martinez said she wanted to help him because he is a fellow Latino.

“It’s a very corny thing,” Martinez said. “When I started making it to the top, I decided that I was never going to forget my culture.”

Gutierrez maintained in the suit that after he told Martinez that he had become engaged to another woman, she demoted him from his manager job.

When he came back from his honeymoon in October, 1991, his desk and personal belongings had been removed from his office, he said. From then on, the harassment continued, he contended, and he eventually resigned.