Sex Harassment Alleged in O.C. School District

Two top administrators for the Orange Unified School District have been placed on “home assignment” pending an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, ranging from inappropriate touching of employees to sexually offensive language.

Deputy Supt. Richard L. Donoghue, who faces the more serious allegations, and Chief Fiscal Officer Joyce Capelle, accused of tolerating sexual banter, have been barred from their district offices since Nov. 23.

Attorney Mary Jo McGrath, who represents the school district, said employees would speak “more freely” as the investigation continues if the administrators were not there. McGrath said she will discuss specific allegations, based on interviews with about 40 employees, with Donoghue, Capelle and their attorney at a meeting Friday.

McGrath said she will then report to interim Supt. Marilyn Corey, who will make a recommendation to the school board at its Dec. 9 meeting. Corey, who initiated the move against the two administrators, was unavailable for comment Wednesday. Because the matter concerns a personnel issue, school district administrators and most school board members contacted Wednesday refused to discuss the allegations.

Capelle, 43, said: “This is fantastic. I don’t have any comment.”

Donoghue, 48, did not return calls to his home. But in a transcript of an interview with Donoghue conducted by McGrath’s office, he denied allegations of sexual harassment. “Give me a break,” he said in the transcript, provided by his attorney, Dale Gronemeier. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Gronemeier, who also represents Capelle, said they are victims of “a witch hunt.” His clients have been asked unfairly by McGrath’s office to respond to generalities, not specifics, he said.

He accused the district of making “faceless and anonymous allegations” in retaliation for cutbacks and cost-saving measures his clients have instituted in the financially strapped district over the last two years.

“We are going to hunt the witch hunters,” Gronemeier said. “There is going to be a day of reckoning. These people are not going to get away with this smear campaign.”

But McGrath, who has produced a video series used across the nation on sexual harassment in schools, said that when she conducted initial interviews with district employees last month, she found sufficient evidence to proceed with an investigation.

“What emerged from the environmental scan was the possibility of a situation that could be regarded as a hostile environment--sexual harassment--existed,” she said.

In the transcript of interviews with Donoghue, interviewers from McGrath’s office asked him to respond to allegations, gleaned from employee interviews, that he “inappropriately touched, stared and leered at female employees,” distributed sexually explicit materials at the district office and made physically intimidating remarks about other district employees.

Donoghue denied the allegations and invited investigators to talk to “anybody on the staff. I have nothing to hide.”

Later in the interview he said: “There are men and women here and there are jokes. There are comments that are just meant to be humorous and not demeaning or offensive to anybody. . . . We kid about a lot of things and that’s just to make people interact,”

At the conclusion of his interview, Donoghue said the district has shattered his relationship with his superior and is in for a “real sleigh ride on this.”

In a separate interview, McGrath’s investigators told Capelle that she had been accused of creating a work atmosphere where sexually explicit remarks were common in staff meetings.

Capelle said she had heard “dirty stories, and dirty jokes,” but that no one had ever complained about the comments.

One school board member willing to discuss the case said he backed the superintendent’s decision.

“I support the superintendent putting them on home leave,” said Dr. Barry Resnick, “It looks like another bad chapter in Orange Unified.”

Both Capelle and Donoghue are receiving full pay.

Though current school board members were informed of the allegations during a three-hour closed session Tuesday night, it was not clear Wednesday evening whether the four incoming board members, who will be sworn in next Thursday, have been informed about the matter they will inherit. (Resnick did not seek reelection.)

Donoghue, a former interim school superintendent, had returned to work as deputy superintendent within the last two months after a liver transplant.

He was hired by the district in 1990 as assistant superintendent of support services. Before that he worked for the Pomona Unified School District.

Capell also came to the district in 1990 from Pomona Unified, where she served in the finance department.