MTA Hit With $5.7-Million Bias Judgment

It could only happen to the MTA: Unwilling to accept an arbitrator’s award of $250,000 to an employee who alleged he was demoted and discriminated against, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority took the man back to court.

The result was the legal equivalent of the Hollywood sinkhole--a $5.7-million judgment against the MTA--believed to be one of the largest such discrimination awards ever levied against the city or county of Los Angeles.

In a brief ruling handed down this week, Superior Court Judge Reginald A. Dunn awarded Alfred F. Boctor just over $1.4 million in economic and medical damages and $4.2 million as compensation for pain, suffering and emotional distress.

According to testimony in a bench trial before Dunn, the 55-year-old Boctor, who at one time was a candidate for a top transportation manager’s job, was demoted to bus driver. He alleged he was subjected not only to age discrimination and accusations of sexual harassment, but also to epithets deriding his Egyptian heritage.

After fighting his demotion for eight years, Boctor said he was thrilled with the court’s decision. “That verdict restored my name,” he said. “I was vindicated.”

He said the allegations of sexual harassment against him were “unwarranted, unfounded and unjustified.” Boctor said the charges were “made up of lies and half-truths” while he was competing for a promotion.

Assistant County Counsel Steven Carnevale, who represents the MTA, was upset by the judgment, which he believes is the largest employment discrimination award in the MTA’s history. “I am kind of, frankly flabbergasted this would be the decision based on these facts,” he said. “I don’t know what motivated the judge here.”

Carnevale said “there is a substantial basis for appeal” and he will recommend one to the MTA board. “We have a lot of problems with that award,” he said.

The agency’s top lawyer defended the decision to seek a trial before Dunn instead of accepting an arbitrator’s recommendation. “Why would you pay him a quarter of a million dollars?” Carnevale asked.

Carnevale said the agency acted appropriately when it demoted a supervisor who was alleged to be sexually harassing women.

Boctor started working in 1975 as a bus driver with the Southern California Rapid Transit District, predecessor to the MTA. He rose to become a vehicle operations manager. But in 1991, Boctor was demoted back to a bus driver’s job after the allegations of sexual harassment were lodged against him.

Boctor’s attorney, Bradley C. Gage, said a hearing officer found in 1993 that the demotion was without proper cause and recommended that Boctor receive only a 30-day suspension. Then-MTA Chief Executive Officer Franklin White refused to accept the decision.

Boctor sought a court order to compel White to revoke the demotion. The trial court refused. A state Court of Appeal panel later upheld the trial court’s ruling that Boctor conducted himself in a manner unbecoming a manager. The appeals court also affirmed that Boctor had engaged in improper harassment of particular employees and created a hostile work environment.

But insisting that he, in fact, was the victim of discrimination based on his age and national origin, Boctor pursued his case against the agency. An arbitrator last year recommended that Boctor be awarded $256,040. The MTA appealed to Dunn.

In court, Gage argued that the MTA had engaged in “a whole course of conduct of discrimination based on race and national origin.”

Dunn apparently agreed and ordered the MTA to pay $5,675,132 to Boctor. The discrimination judgment is far larger than any ever returned against the city of Los Angeles, said Mike Qualls, spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

It is believed to be the largest employment discrimination judgment returned against the county government as well. “I’m fairly confident that we’ve never even approached it,” said Assistant County Counsel Louis Aguilar.