FBI Settles Harassment Lawsuit for $300,000 : Courts: Ex-agent says she pursued legal action, even though it led her to cut short her career, because she wanted to end a culture of abuse.

The FBI, in an effort to resolve the first sexual harassment lawsuit ever filed by a female agent, agreed Tuesday to pay former Agent Suzane J. Doucette and her attorneys nearly $300,000 in exchange for dropping the suit.

Doucette, 40, alleged in 1993 that her career was ruined because she publicly accused a superior of assault and sexual harassment. With one of two daughters at her side Tuesday at a news conference in West Los Angeles, Doucette praised the FBI but said she pursued her allegations because she didn’t want her daughters and other women to face the culture of harassment that existed within the agency when she left.

Among all law enforcement agencies, Doucette said, the size and military-style structure of the FBI tend to breed an atmosphere more conducive to sexual harassment and discrimination.

Tuesday’s settlement marked the second time in eight months that the FBI has settled sexual harassment suits filed by female agents.

Last May, the agency agreed to pay $192,500 to Orange County-based Agent Heather Power-Anderson and $155,000 to her colleague, Boni Carr-Alduenda, in exchange for their dropping a suit. That suit, which alleged fondling and taunting by a supervisor, was filed after Doucette’s but settled more swiftly.

Under the terms of Tuesday’s settlement, Doucette will keep $150,000; the remaining $147,500 will go toward her legal fees, said FBI General Counsel Howard M. Shapiro.

The settlement does not mean that the agency is admitting wrongdoing, Shapiro said. “The parties agreed to disagree,” he said. “It was in the best interests of all of us to put this behind us and go forward.”

The agency--which would not hire women as agents until after former Director J. Edgar Hoover’s death in 1972--has long been criticized for tolerating an atmosphere that can be hostile to women and minorities. FBI Director Louis J. Freeh recently embarked on a public campaign to rid the agency of discrimination and retaliation. Because it is part of the Justice Department, the FBI’s responsibilities include enforcement of the nation’s civil rights laws banning such discrimination.

Doucette, recruited out of college, joined the FBI in 1984. She said that in December, 1988, an FBI superior placed a chokehold on her and touched her “in ways that are very sensitive,” according to her federal lawsuit filed in Phoenix in June, 1993, and in congressional testimony.

After she filed the suit and appeared before a legislative subcommittee, the nine-year veteran was placed on unpaid leave. Shortly thereafter, she turned in her badge, saying the career she hoped to pursue with the agency was doomed.

The supervisor in question, identified as Herbert H. Hawkins Jr., former FBI special agent in charge in Arizona, is retired. He has strongly denied all charges, saying he never touched Doucette in an improper manner.

Although she wished to remain loyal to the agency, Doucette said, she continued to speak out, in part because of the support of her family, including her husband, who is a Los Angeles-based FBI agent.

Doucette said the only way to create and foster sensitivity to gender-related issues at the FBI is to hire more women.

According to the FBI, about 11% of the agency’s 10,400 agents are women. Likewise, about 11% of the organization’s 1,030 supervisors are women.

Of 56 field offices nationwide, three are headed by African Americans and three are headed by Latinos.

Although Doucette initially harbored hopes of returning to the agency, she has recently formed her own film production company, whose first project, “Rebel Clone,” is described as a science fiction movie for youths.

“I’m really just needing to get on with my life,” Doucette said, saying that it was emotionally costly for her and her family to take on the FBI. “It’s a large and very powerful organization,” she said.