911 Operator Claims Sexual Harassment in Suit Against LAPD : Courts: Woman says she was stalked by a former boyfriend, a sergeant in the Hollenbeck division.

Claiming that sexual harassment is a pervasive problem in the Los Angeles Police Department, the ACLU filed a lawsuit this week on behalf of Alicia Robalino, a 911 emergency telephone operator who charges that she has been harassed and assaulted by a former boyfriend, Sgt. John Ortega of the LAPD’s Hollenbeck division.

The court filing came as an LAPD disciplinary panel began hearings Friday on charges filed by the department that Ortega punched Robalino and pushed her out of a moving vehicle in December. If found guilty of the allegations, the sergeant could face punishment ranging from a reprimand to dismissal.

Robalino testified before an LAPD Board of Rights panel Friday that she met with Ortega for two hours in his pickup outside his residence after he called her and said he wanted to visit her at home.

“It began as a discussion about a reconciliation, it escalated into an argument and then into a physical altercation,” she said. “I was punched in the jaw and shoved out of the vehicle.”

The civil lawsuit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages for Robalino, demands that the LAPD create a specially trained unit to investigate complaints of sexual harassment and assault in a timely fashion.

“The problem is pervasive,” American Civil Liberties Union senior staff counsel Carol A. Sobel said at a news conference. “I think (Police) Chief (Willie L.) Williams is sincere about trying to do something, but I don’t think the department knows what to do.

“James Farentino was arrested for less with Tina Sinatra than what this guy has done to Alicia,” she said, referring to stalking charges filed recently against the actor.

In the lawsuit, Robalino, 33, alleges that since breaking off her 18-month relationship with Ortega last year, the sergeant has harassed her repeatedly by following her home in his police car, parking outside her workplace and striking her.

Ortega’s harassment has persisted, Robalino charges, despite a temporary restraining order issued in February in Los Angeles County Superior Court. She said she has also complained to Williams in letters and in person to the Internal Affairs Division and the Police Commission.

“I find it ironic that 70% of the calls that I take as a 911 operator are of domestic violence nature,” said Robalino, a civilian employee of the LAPD. “I send an officer out (and) the officers arrest the party with less evidence than I have given the department.

“The party involved in my case has been on the department with a gun . . . for nine months.”

LAPD officials refused to respond to questions about the ACLU lawsuit Thursday. “As a matter of policy, we don’t comment on matters being litigated in court,” Lt. John Dunkin said.

Ortega and his department advocate before the Board of Rights refused comment on both legal matters Friday.

While denying at the disciplinary hearing that he punched or shoved Robalino or lied about it to investigators, Ortega did plead guilty to charges that he drove an unregistered vehicle and left an assigned area to go to Robalino’s residence while on duty in September.

Ortega’s advocate, Sgt. Eddie Camarillo, told the board that “the crux of this case (is) credibility” and indicated that he would cross-examine Robalino in-depth on her relationship with Ortega.

In conjunction with the temporary restraining order, Sobel said, Ortega also filed a report in court accusing Robalino of burglarizing his apartment and taking an LAPD women’s uniform, assorted lingerie from Victoria’s Secret and $2 worth of quarters.

Those allegations, Sobel said, are untrue.

According to the ACLU lawsuit, Ortega was disciplined by LAPD superiors after a 1991 incident in which he entered Robalino’s home without permission and drew his service weapon on a male guest. Dunkin said he could not confirm if Ortega had been suspended.

After an appearance by Robalino in March, the Police Commission ordered a review of whether emergency procedures should be established to expedite sex harassment investigations. Williams has reported back to the commission on the matter in private, staffers said.

Last year, a survey by the city’s Commission on the Status of Women ranked the Police Department first among city departments in sexual harassment complaints, with nearly 50% of employees who responded to the study reporting harassment.

In January, Williams called for the development of a departmentwide harassment training program, winning praise from the Women’s Advisory Council, a group independently examining sexual harassment in the department.

But council spokeswoman Jenifer McKenna echoed the demands of the ACLU suit, saying that a new, properly trained unit is needed to handle harassment complaints.

“No matter how wonderful the training is, it won’t solve the problem,” said McKenna, managing director of the California Women’s Law Center. “The (LAPD’s) Internal Affairs Division is the only avenue now available in the department and it is wholly inappropriate. Indeed, often it results in women who complain being retaliated against.”