Arcadia : 2 Women Suing Racetrack

A woman and her daughter claim in a lawsuit against Santa Anita Park that two supervisors there demanded to have sex with them in exchange for more working hours.

The supervisors also are named in the lawsuits.

Andrea Sanchez, 40, and Olivia Sanchez, 24, both of Monrovia, filed separate suits in Los Angeles Superior Court this month charging that their supervisor in the custodial services department asked for sex whenever they asked to work more hours. The women quit their jobs in October.

“Sex was being demanded of women for them to maintain their positions as maintenance workers,” said Francis Sparagna, the Sanchezes’ attorney. “As a condition of working there, they had to submit. If they didn’t, they were going to get minimal hours or none at all.”

According to the lawsuits, the women’s complaints to racetrack security officials were never taken seriously. Sparagna said Andrea Sanchez tape-recorded the supervisor making a sex-for-work proposal and played the tape for racetrack officials.

Sparagna said he knows of three other women who say the supervisor asked for sex when they applied for jobs.

Leigh Chapman, an attorney representing the L.A. Turf Club, which manages the racetrack, said officials conducted a thorough investigation of the sexual harassment charges, but she refused to disclose the result of the inquiry. She declined further comment because the racetrack has not received the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, the alleged sexual harassment took place between June and October 1992, when the Sanchezes were part-time workers at the racetrack.

In addition to the L.A. Turf Club, the lawsuits name as defendants Wendall Griffin, who supervised the part-time custodial staff, and his superior, William Lyons.

Neither Griffin nor Lyons could be reached for comment, and racetrack officials refused to say whether the men are still employed there.