Jurors Reject Suit Against Court Official : Trial: The administrator did not discriminate against a former county employee who claimed he sexually harassed her and drove her from her job, panel decides.

An Orange County jury rejected a sexual harassment lawsuit Thursday by a former county employee who alleged that a top courthouse administrator taunted her with insults and drove her from her job.

Jurors said they believed Bonnie Severson had a bitter work relationship with her boss, but said she never proved that the actions of Central Municipal Court Administrator Robert Kuhel amounted to sexual harassment.

“We had to go with the evidence that was presented,” juror Haven Tieck said.

In her lawsuit, Severson alleged that Kuhel repeatedly called her a “bitch” at work--an insult she said was sometimes preceded by “coldhearted” or “pigheaded.”

Kuhel, who supervises more than 220 employees at the Santa Ana courthouse, denied the allegations. He could not be reached for comment after the verdict.

“I’m sure he’s thrilled,” said defense attorney Charles Matheis Jr., who represented Kuhel and the county during the weeklong trial. “But it was sad it had to happen at all.”

A disappointed Severson said: “I think more women need to stand up and be heard.”

She added, “It’s a difficult thing to leave a career of 20 years, spend five years in the legal system and have this type of result.”

After about seven hours of deliberations, the Superior Court jury decided 10 to 2 that Kuhel did not discriminate against Severson, a former division head at the courthouse, by creating a hostile and offensive work environment based in part on her gender. Unlike criminal cases, a jury verdict in a civil trial does not have to be unanimous.

During the trial, Severson alleged that her boss created such a hostile work environment that she was forced to take early retirement from her $36,000-a-year job in 1988. Her retirement came on her 50th birthday, the earliest date she could retire and still claim minimum retirement benefits, her lawyer, William M. Crosby, said.

Severson, who began working as a court clerk in 1968, said her problems with Kuhel did not start until 1983, when she was was promoted to court services division head.

Tieck said Thursday that Severson’s case might have been strengthened if she had filed a grievance with the county at the time of the alleged incidents. Without any documentation, Tieck said, the case boiled down to Severson’s word against Kuhel’s.

Kuhel’s lawyer characterized the case as unsubstantiated claims by a woman troubled by personal problems at home and said that the suit amounted to nothing more than a bid for money.

Kuhel conceded he had given Severson a novelty note pad at one point inscribed with the phrase “From the desk of the bitch,” but that another female employee picked out the gift, Matheis said.

Even if the jury believed Severson’s claims of verbal abuse, there was no evidence that such comments amounted to gender discrimination, Matheis said.

Severson was seeking more than $500,000 in compensation from the county for lost wages and benefits as well as emotional distress, and unspecified punitive damages from Kuhel.

Since retiring, Severson has found work as a real estate agent, but only after a substantial struggle to find a new career, her lawyers said.

After the verdict, Severson said she regretted not filing a formal complaint with the county years before her 1990 lawsuit, but said she had been concerned at the time that it would cause more problems at work.