Trustees Kept Claim Secret, Member Says : Schools: But colleague denies being told of sexual harassment complaint against superintendent.

The school board knew more than a year ago about sexual harassment complaints against interim Supt. Richard L. Donoghue but did nothing, a board member said Thursday.

Trustee Barry Resnick, who was president of the Orange Unified School District board at the time, said he tried to persuade his fellow trustees to investigate complaints made to him about Donoghue but was “ignored by the majority of the board members.”

“It was like beating my head against the wall,” Resnick said. “I told them we had problems, but they refused to listen.”

Donoghue, 48, now the district’s deputy superintendent, and Joyce Capelle, 43, chief fiscal officer, were placed on “home assignment” on Nov. 23, while district officials investigate allegations of sexual harassment.

In interviews with the attorney for the school district, employees have accused Donoghue of inappropriate touching and leering at female employees, distributing sexually explicit materials at the district office and making physically intimidating remarks about other district employees, according transcripts of interviews.

Capelle has been accused of tolerating sexually explicit remarks in the workplace, according to the same transcripts.

But board member Bill Lewis denied Thursday that the board had been told earlier about complaints against Donoghue.

“Never have I heard from Dr. Resnick or any other board member that we should be investigating sexual harassment (allegations) against an administrator,” Lewis said.

Resnick, however, insisted not only that he told board members in the fall of 1992 about complaints by employees, but also that Donoghue himself approached the board that June and said he might be sued for sexual harassment. (No suit was ever filed.)

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“There were so many red flags going up then that the board can’t deny they knew what was going on,” Resnick said.

“They were elected to serve the interests of the community,” he said. “And, should these allegations prove to be true, they neglected to mind the store.”

Donoghue and Capelle refused to comment, but attorney Dale Gronemeier, who is representing both of them, denied the allegations and said his clients are being targeted in retaliation for cost-cutting measures they instituted in the financially strapped district.

The five other board members were either unavailable or refused to comment about Resnick’s claims.

One of the allegations apparently involved a penis-shaped shot glass in the office. Gronemeier said the glass was a gag gift to Donoghue, and that he failed to see why his client should be blamed for merely receiving it.

“I don’t know how someone giving Dick Donoghue a racy gift is sexual harassment by Dick Donoghue,” he said.

The attorney added that “nobody has ever complained (to Donoghue or Capelle). These are intelligent, sensitive administrators and they would have modified their behavior immediately. To go back and dredge up stuff from a year ago has the odor of a witch hunt.”

Board President Lila Beavans on Thursday would not comment on the allegations but said she backed interim Supt. Marilyn Corey’s decision to place Donoghue and Capelle on home assignment.

“I strongly support Corey for her courageous action in this matter. Our employees deserve a safe and professional place to work,” she said. “And that action by the board to accomplish that is overdue.”

The terms of board members Resnick, Beavans, Al Irish and John Hurley officially expire today at noon. Resnick and Beavans did not seek reelection; Irish and Hurley lost their bids to retain their seats. New school board members are slated to be sworn in at the board’s meeting Thursday.

At the same meeting, Corey is expected to recommend what action to take, if any, against Capelle and Donoghue. Unless they request a public hearing, the matter will be discussed in closed session.

In the past four years, the 26,000-student school district has witnessed an unsuccessful recall movement aimed at five board members, a controversial dismissal of a school superintendent, teacher layoffs and hundreds of citations from the state for mechanical violations of its aging 74-vehicle bus fleet.