County Pays $100,000 in Harassment Suit

A county panel settled a sexual harassment claim by awarding $100,000 to a female worker Monday, four years after the Civil Service Commission dismissed her allegations and reinstated the male co-worker she had accused.

Probation Department clerk Cynthia Juarez, working at the Challenger Memorial Youth Facility in Lancaster, alleged that probation officer Samuel A. Jones groped her and touched off an internal department dispute that cost her a promotion.

Jones was fired from the department in October 1993, but appealed to the Civil Service Commission, which concluded that Juarez did not have enough evidence to support her charges. Jones was reinstated and later transferred to another juvenile camp.

Said Jones of the new settlement: “I won hands down, and they’re gonna pay her $100,000? That doesn’t make sense. If anyone, I’m the one who suffered.”

But lawyers for the county said that if the case had gone to trial, a jury probably would find that Juarez was sexually harassed and forced to work in a hostile environment, and could award her $520,000.

Juarez could not be reached for comment. Her lawyer, David J. Duchrow, said, “We’re pleased with the certainty a settlement provides. We’re hopeful there won’t be a recurrence. This may have some marginal effect in getting them to clean up their own house.”

Juarez, a county employee since 1979, said she was the victim of racial discrimination at the Lancaster juvenile camp even before the alleged incident involving Jones.

She said that on May 21, 1993, she was walking on the camp grounds when Jones and his supervisor rode by in a motorized cart. As the cart passed, she said, Jones reached out and placed his hands between her legs.

Juarez filed an internal grievance against Jones. While it was pending, Jones and a number of his friends called Juarez at home to pressure her to drop the complaint, according to county documents.

In an October 1993 letter, Chief Probation Officer Barry J. Nidorf notified Jones that he was discharging him, saying: “Your conduct was unworthy of your position and we can no longer trust you.”

Meanwhile, Juarez said, she was being forced to work in an environment where sexually suggestive cartoons and unwelcome physical contact were tolerated--conditions she said dated back to the start of her employment in the county.

In May 1994, the Civil Service Commission found she had not proved her case, and ordered Jones reinstated.