UCLA Student Says Medical Center Staff Harassed Him : Law: Emergency room employee’s suit says he was subjected to verbal and physical advances by homosexual co-workers. University attorneys say his story is inconsistent.

When Scott D. Matthews started work in the UCLA Medical Center emergency room two years ago, he was, he says, the only heterosexual among eight male admitting workers.

Now Matthews, a premed student, is suing the UCLA Board of Regents, alleging that homosexual co-workers harassed him verbally and physically--and that university administrators repeatedly ignored his complaints.

“We’re talking about some pretty egregious stuff,” said Michael Homeier, an attorney for Matthews. “Nobody should have to put up with this kind of condition in the workplace. It is shocking to me that an institution like UCLA, as big and wealthy as it is and on the cutting edge of knowledge, would have been so lax as to allow a situation like this to persist.”

University lawyers reject Matthews’ allegations, claiming his statements in the case have been riven with inconsistencies.

“Part of the problem with this case is the plaintiff’s story has changed a number of times,” said UCLA attorney Christopher Patti. “His initial complaints were about atmosphere, sexual jokes. He worried that because he worked there, people thought he was homosexual. Now the lawsuit contains a whole new set of allegations.”

The Matthews case illustrates a trend in such litigation: that sexual harassment claims these days are not always filed by women against men. Says Los Angeles attorney Joel P. Kelly, who is representing UCLA in the Matthews case: “We see cases filed by women against men, men against women, women against women, and men against men.”

Matthews, 24, alleges sexual harassment, retaliation, infliction of emotional distress and slander. He contends that in his 17 months on the job he was subjected to repeated sexual advances and proposals and lewd remarks. Male co-workers rubbed their genitals and buttocks against him and stroked his neck, back and arms, he claims in the lawsuit filed by Lewis W. Boies Jr., Matthews’ lead attorney.

His supervisors, both homosexual, observed the harassment and permitted it to continue, Matthews claims. Although state law requires employers to investigate such complaints immediately and intervene, administrators ignored his initial reports except to inform his supervisors, according to the lawsuit.

He says he sought help from the medical and administrative directors of the emergency room, the UCLA Affirmative Action Office and the Staff and Faculty Counseling Service, but to no avail.

Subjected to retaliation by his bosses and shunned by co-workers in a “hostile work environment,” Matthews says, he went on an unpaid leave of absence in October, 1993, that remains in effect. He has begun his senior year, but has since abandoned his plans to attend medical school, deciding to pursue dentistry instead.

The university asserts that it responded adequately to Matthews’ complaints. In September, two months after his initial complaint, its Human Resources Department conducted an investigation of the matter.

The investigators concluded that there had been “gender harassment,” a finding supported in a written statement by Aaron Lohr, deputy director of the medical center.

“I concur with the finding that there was gender harassment in the workplace,” wrote Lohr. “This is based principally on verbal behaviors, i.e., generalized sexist or derogatory statements and behaviors which conveyed insulting or degrading attitudes on sexual orientation, gender or work group status.”

However, defense attorneys say Matthews’ harassment claims in his lawsuit are far different from the allegations he made--and the university confirmed--last September.

UCLA lawyers also say that after the results of the investigation were in, Lohr recommended that the emergency room staff be educated as to “how behaviors are perceived” and taught to deal with “the challenges of a diverse work group.”

Although Matthews’ two supervisors and the medical and administrative directors of the emergency room were named as co-defendants, Superior Court Judge Alan B. Haber ruled this week that individuals cannot be held financially liable under the Fair Employment and Housing Act, the state law on which the lawsuit is based.

No trial date has been set. But at a hearing Monday, the judge also dismissed Matthews’ claim that his employers discriminated against him because of his sexual orientation. The Fair Employment and Housing Act does not address that issue, Haber said.

The rulings, unless successfully appealed by Matthews’ lawyers, leave the student with a lawsuit against the Board of Regents, which in February rejected his claim for $305,000. He filed his suit in March.

“The last thing Scott wanted to do was to sue UCLA,” Boies said. “But the university stonewalled him.”

Matthews filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing in July, 1993, after declining several offers of alternative jobs at UCLA at the same pay.

His medical center job had “resume value,” his lawsuit says. It offered “profound benefits for a premed student,” such as a chance to work on actual cases, mingle with health professionals and learn medical terms while earning a salary, benefits and tuition credits.

But the treatment he received in the emergency room, it says, brought him “depression, anxiety, self-doubt, embarrassment, sleep disorders, lack of concentration . . . aversion to physical contact and suspicions of male relationships.”

Lawyers for UCLA say the university has done everything possible to appease him and avoid a trial.

“I don’t believe his claims are valid,” UCLA’s Patti says. “He made a complaint, and the university investigated it promptly and acted appropriately. Our offer of a comparable position is still open, and we could resolve the lawsuit on that basis.”