Freeh Vows to Fight Sexual Harassment at FBI

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, vowing that sexual harassment and discrimination “will not be tolerated” inside the FBI, warned Wednesday that any supervisor found to have harassed a subordinate probably will be fired in the future.

Freeh’s statement came as an outgrowth of a Santa Ana case in which two female FBI agents charged that their male supervisor taunted and fondled them and made lewd remarks.

The supervisor, John Carpenter, a 20-year bureau veteran, was suspended without pay for 45 days, reduced in rank and transferred to the Long Beach office, according to law enforcement sources. Carpenter, who denied the allegations, could not be reached.

Citing privacy concerns, Freeh and other FBI officials declined to specify Carpenter’s punishment but contended that it was in line with the most severe discipline in other comparable cases. The FBI director said the guidelines for future punishment will be harsher.

“I recognize that the severity of punishments I am announcing is a departure from past practice,” Freeh said. “It is, however, fully consistent with my often stated views about the high standards of professional conduct I expect from each FBI employee, whether agent or support, to abide by.”

The Santa Ana case, which led to federal lawsuits in March by the two agents, Heather Power-Anderson and Boni Carr-Alduenda, was settled with unusual speed by the FBI in May. The FBI agreed to pay $192,500 to Power-Anderson and $155,000 to Carr-Alduenda in exchange for their dropping the suit, according to their lawyer, Christopher B. Mears of Irvine.

The settlement agreement also provided that Freeh would issue a public statement acknowledging the agreement and “reiterating the FBI’s commitment to the maintenance of a workplace free from all forms of discrimination and retaliation.”

His statement Wednesday appeared to go further with its declaration that FBI employees who engage in sexual harassment and discrimination “can expect the maximum penalties” and that supervisors who harass subordinates in the future likely will be fired.

Mears said Carpenter should be fired for his “reprehensible conduct.”

Power-Anderson of Mission Viejo has been a special agent since 1984, and Carr-Alduenda of Laguna Niguel has been with the bureau since 1988.

Power-Anderson, who was assigned to Carpenter’s squad, said that in one incident he kissed her on the back of the neck while she was sitting at her desk. Another time, she alleged, Carpenter tore her dress when he forced his hand onto her upper thigh.

Carr-Alduenda alleged that Carpenter constantly grabbed her and commented several times about the size of her breasts. In the lawsuit, she said that when she returned from maternity leave in September, 1992, Carpenter remarked: “Maternity has been good to you. Your breasts are really big. Are you breast feeding? I wish I was your baby.”