Suit Accuses Prosecutors of Sexual Harassment : Court: Member of Long Beach prosecutor’s office also claims discrimination and violations of labor and free speech laws.

When she joined the Long Beach city prosecutor’s office, attorney Linda Vitale said, she felt like she had stepped into the musty confines of a boys’ locker room.

With startling regularity, some male attorneys at the office called her “bitch, man hater” and other derogatory terms, said Vitale, who was assigned primarily to cases involving crimes against women.

One deputy prosecutor, she alleged, would grab his crotch and spout sexual innuendoes. Another, she said, would rub his finger suggestively down the back of a female paralegal, whose protests went unheeded.

Even worse, Vitale claimed, some attorneys in the office made offensive references about women who were alleging that they had been abused by spouses. The city prosecutor’s office handles misdemeanor domestic violence cases in which the injuries are not considered severe. Cases involving more serious injuries are prosecuted by the district attorney’s office.

“A typical comment (from some attorneys) was, ‘What did the bitch do to deserve getting beaten up?’ ” Vitale said.

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Vitale detailed these and other allegations in a lawsuit filed last month in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit accuses deputy prosecutors Ken Bird and David Gordon of sexual harassment and discrimination, violations of labor and free-speech laws and other improprieties. Although several deputy prosecutors in the 16-member office participated in harassment, Bird and Gordon were the worst offenders, Vitale said.

The City of Long Beach and city prosecutor John Vander Lans also were named as defendants. Vitale said Vander Lans he did not participate in the harassment but tolerated it.

Vander Lans, who has served as city prosecutor, an elected position, since 1978, said he and the other attorneys are prevented from commenting on the charges because of the pending litigation.

In comments after the suit was filed last month, Vitale said: “I hope (the lawsuit) accomplishes a change in the attitude and behavior of these attorneys so no other woman hired by that office will have to go through what I went through for 4 1/2 years.” Vitale, a Long Beach resident, took a leave of absence last year from the office, citing stress.

Vander Lans’ office also was accused two years ago of being insensitive to women’s issues. The Women’s Advisory Committee to Police Chief William C. Ellis questioned Vander Lans’ decision to assign only one deputy, Vitale, to handle a big increase in domestic violence cases.

During a meeting, committee members said Vander Lans ignored questions, resisted suggestions and finally stormed out of the room. The prosecutor was “condescending, patronizing and offensive,” the committee said in a letter to the City Council.

The letter further stated that Vander Lans told committee members that he felt it was wrong to assign “these types of cases to attorneys who do not want to handle them. I just can’t tell attorneys they have to prosecute these cases because it takes a certain type of person to do this kind of work. Men do not like to handle these cases.”

Vander Lans later conceded that he lost his temper, but denied that he treats crimes against women lightly or that he was condescending to the committee.

Vitale, 46, joined the prosecutor’s office in 1990 after working as a public defender for Los Angeles County. Within two years, she said, she was handling domestic abuse cases exclusively.

The office’s domestic violence caseload increased from about 300 in 1990 to 1,300 in 1994. Vitale said she and a paralegal handled most of the cases.

Vander Lans attributed the increase to a new law requiring police officers to file reports in any situation of possible domestic abuse. He also said Vitale had no greater workload than her colleagues.

Vitale said she continued to be a target of ridicule. Among other things, Vitale said an attorney once asked her, “Doesn’t everybody slap their wives?”

She said she became more of an outcast last year when she did not support Vander Lans in his 1994 reelection campaign. She said she remained neutral and did not put Vander Lans’ campaign bumper stickers on her car or signs on her lawn. She said some people in the office spread rumors that she supported Vander Lans’ opponent, former City Councilman Evan Anderson Braude, and had leaked information about the prosecutor’s office to him.

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In June, 1994, two months after Vander Lans was reelected, Vitale was reassigned to general cases and another attorney was put in charge of domestic violence cases. Vitale said she received no explanation for the switch, but Vander Lans said he decided that she needed a break from handling those cases.

Vitale said she went on disability leave soon afterward.

Ironically, Vitale noted, she was experiencing some of the same symptoms as many of the women whose abusers she prosecuted: sleepless nights, severe depression, anxiety, crying and high blood pressure.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

City attorneys have urged most city officials, including council members, not to comment on Vitale’s lawsuit.

But Councilman Douglas S. Drummond said he supports the prosecutor.

“He and I have had differences of opinion in the past which we’ve settled, but frankly I like him and I supported him in the last election,” Drummond said.

“I have no (direct) knowledge of the lawsuit, but I think it’s most unfortunate and I think everyone loses in a case like this. I dislike it when attorneys sue attorneys.”