Assembly OKs Damages in Sex Harassment Case

Assembly attorneys agreed Thursday to pay $360,000 to a fired legislative employee who a trial court jury said suffered emotional distress at the hands of a former Orange County lawmaker and his top aide.

The settlement closes the legal fight between former Assemblyman Mickey Conroy and Robyn Boyd, the onetime assistant who accused him of sexual harassment.

Both sides claimed a measure of victory after the settlement was announced.

Boyd said the award represented more than double what she originally asked for after filing the lawsuit in 1994. Assembly attorneys, meanwhile, noted that it was far less than the more than $1.4 million in damages and attorney fees being sought by Boyd’s lawyers.

“I see it as a clear victory,” Boyd said. “But I think the taxpayers should be angry at their government. They have fought this case so hard merely to preserve the rights of lawmakers to harass women.”

Conroy, meanwhile, said the final settlement was irrelevant because he and Pete Conaty had already been cleared of the most serious charges in their trial. “The bottom line is we were found innocent,” he said.

In May, a Sacramento jury rejected sexual harassment and battery allegations against the Orange Republican and Conaty, his chief of staff, but found that the pair inflicted emotional distress on Boyd and awarded her $386,000.

Assembly attorneys immediately fought the award, claiming it should be thrown out on a technicality because there was no finding of sexual harassment against Boyd and she didn’t qualify for any money.

Boyd’s attorneys expressed confidence Thursday that they could have overcome those arguments, but suggested that the Assembly simply would have dragged the case on, potentially to a new trial on the damages.