Sex Harassment Suit Settled for $75,000

The city will pay $75,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the former executive secretary to the Rose Bowl general manager. She contended that her boss sexually harassed her.

The settlement, signed Thursday, requires City Council approval and comes almost a year after Dave Jacobs was suspended for four working days by a city hearing board for allegedly harassing Jane Orr. The suspension was not officially for sexual harassment, but for violating city rules on workplace behavior.

In her lawsuit, filed last year in Los Angeles Superior Court, Orr alleged that Jacobs told off-color jokes, made her sit on his lap and patted her buttocks. In depositions obtained by The Times last year, two other female Rose Bowl employees supported Orr’s allegations.

Jacobs’ attorney, Skip Miller, said the settlement is for less than the case would have cost in trial and noted that the agreement contains a clause that he said “exonerates Dave Jacobs and the city of Pasadena of sexual harassment.”

“No sexual relationship ever existed between Jacobs and Orr,” the agreement states. “Nor were any sexual relationships ever requested, engaged in or coerced by Jacobs.”

But Orr’s attorney, Howard Rosen, said that while Jacobs may not have engaged in “quid pro quo sexual harassment . . . he behaved in a way which created a hostile work environment.”