Ex-Clerk at Dealership Files Harassment Suit : Thousand Oaks: The former employee accuses company’s controller of sexually assaulting her and sending explicit computer messages.

A former clerk at a Thousand Oaks car dealership on Tuesday contended in a lawsuit that she was sexually assaulted and harassed by the dealership’s controller, whom she accused of sending her computer messages laced with sexual references.

The complaint by Nadia Araj was filed in Ventura County Superior Court. It names Thousand Oaks Toyota and its controller, Jeffrey Capponi, as defendants.

Capponi could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Araj asked the court to award her general damages for abuse she allegedly suffered from March through October of this year.

The lawsuit includes four pages of documents that Araj contends are computer messages she and other women at the dealership received from July 20, 1993, to Sept. 7, 1993.

One of the messages, addressed to “Nadia” from “Jeff,” includes a sexually explicit reference to a woman’s breast.

Copies of two other messages attached to the lawsuit refer to the husbands of women at the dealership, including one that rates the masculinity of the men on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being “a man’s man.”

Araj could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Her attorney, Marjorie Lynn Niswonger, declined to discuss the case.

Araj said she reported her complaints to her supervisor at the dealership, Glenn Mueller.

Mueller, saying he had not seen the lawsuit, also declined comment Tuesday. Capponi did not return a telephone call.

Araj’s lawsuit says she was hired as a clerk at the dealership a year and a half ago.

According to the lawsuit, Araj resigned her position in October because of the “severe emotional distress” she suffered and the company’s failure to take corrective action after she complained of the alleged abuse.

The lawsuit states that on one occasion in May, 1993, Capponi asked Araj to go in a file room with him. It said that he “grabbed the plaintiff from the back, touching her breasts, and attempted to put her hand” on a part of his body.

According to the lawsuit, Capponi also occasionally rubbed up against Araj, and made sexual references to those incidents.

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The lawsuit contends Capponi made references to Araj “being fat” and “being low-class.”

The complaint also says Araj complained to Mueller from May through October of this year. Thousand Oaks Toyota was negligent and caused Araj emotional distress by not taking action, the suit says.

“Thousand Oaks Toyota knew, or should have known, that its failure to exercise due care in the performance of employment would cause plaintiff severe emotional distress,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleged that “the work environment of Thousand Oaks Toyota was hostile because of the unwelcome sexual conduct, which interfered with the work environment.”