Cypress Settles Sex Harassment Suit : Courts: City denies wrongdoing but will pay $60,000 to its first female police sergeant and accept her medical disability claim. She will resign, collect half pay for life.

The city of Cypress on Monday agreed to pay $60,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the Police Department’s first female sergeant.

The settlement came during the third day of a civil trial of a case brought by Sgt. Sandra D. Stanton, who said she was sexually harassed by her supervisor--who also happened to be her ex-husband.

Under terms of the settlement, Stanton will resign from the Cypress Police Department, ending her 16-year career there.

In addition to paying $60,000 to settle the suit, the city has also agreed not to contest Stanton’s medical disability claims, which means that she will receive half of her $58,000-a-year salary for the remainder of her life.

Stanton, 42, described the settlement as vindicating her claims that the Cypress department was a hotbed of favoritism and retaliation.

“This (settlement) means that you don’t have to give up your rights as a human being,” Stanton said. “Even if you’re a cop or not, no one has a right to treat you like trash. This sort of business will not be tolerated.”

Stanton’s former husband and city officials have denied that the city did anything wrong.

On Monday, both Mayor Richard Partin and the city’s attorney, Harold Drew Bridges, said it was more economical to settle the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit she filed in December, 1992, Stanton said her career was marked for ruin when she complained that her male colleagues--including her ex-husband, Lt. James Weuve--taunted her with a photo of a scantily clad model.

She said her troubles sprang from a police meeting in April, 1991, when she arrived late, explaining that she had difficulty getting a ride to the station and apologizing for her tardiness.

One of her fellow officers, Sgt. Ron Dickson, showed her a postcard of a voluptuous model in a skimpy tank top and, according to the lawsuit, commented, “If you looked like this, you’d probably not have any trouble getting a ride.”

Stanton said the room erupted in laughter. Her ex-husband later retaliated against her for the breakup of their marriage by giving her an unfavorable job evaluation in 1992, even though her colleagues voted her “Officer of the Year” that same year.

Stanton also complained that a photocopy of the dictionary definition of “bitch” was left on her desk, glass shards were dumped in her desk drawers, and unknown persons stapled the pockets of her jacket. The harassment resulted in constant headaches and stomach problems, she said.

Bridges said he believed the city and the Police Department would have prevailed, “but the settlement was acceptable.”

Continuing with the trial “was costing us about $10,000 a day,” Partin said. “It came down to cutting our losses and getting out of the trial. It’s an unexpected expense to the city of Cypress. You don’t count on your employees suing you for being unhappy.”

Both Bridges and Stanton’s attorney, Phyllis Gallagher of Fullerton, acknowledged Monday that they were strongly encouraged to settle the case by presiding Judge Frederick Horn, a former Santa Monica police officer.

Gallagher said her client could have obtained “a large damage award, but we accomplished what we set out to do--to hold them accountable for their behavior.”

“We’ve made them pay,” Gallagher said. “We feel they now have a strong message that things have to change there. We feel we have done a service for women in law enforcement.”

Stanton’s is one of several sexual harassment lawsuits that have been settled by police departments in Southern California during the last two years. Last month, the City of Newport Beach paid $175,000 to two of 10 women who filed sexual harassment suits against the city, its former police chief and his top captain.