O.C. to Pay $325,000 in 1 of 5 Sex Harassment Suits Against LaDucer

In the first settlement in a highly publicized sexual harassment case, county officials said Tuesday they have agreed to pay $325,000 to one of five women who filed lawsuits against former Assistant Sheriff Dennis LaDucer.

The settlement relates to former Sheriff’s Deputy Florence “Jeannie” Henson, whose 1997 lawsuit charged that LaDucer harped on her “lesbian lifestyle” and urged her to join him in a sexual encounter with another woman.

Under the terms of the agreement approved by the county’s office of risk management Monday, the county will pay Henson $25,000 upfront as well as her attorney fees. The rest of the money will fund an annuity that will yield Henson $1,250 monthly for the next 10 years, and $1,400 after that for the rest of her life. The 37-year-old plaintiff has since retired from the department.

LaDucer, 53, has denied all allegations, and his attorney, Jeffrey Epstein, said Tuesday the settlement does not indicate an admission of guilt on his client’s part.

County officials would not comment on why they decided to settle the case.

Patrick Thistle, Henson’s attorney, said his client decided to settle because she dreaded a long and drawn-out trial. “Four years of harassment is [a] living hell,” Thistle said. “Followed by two years of more hell with litigation. . . . She just wants to get on with her life.”

Thistle indicated settlements are still possible on the remaining suits. “We are still talking,” he said.

Henson’s lawsuit, along with three others filed in 1997, rocked the largest Orange County law enforcement agency.

After an investigation, then-Sheriff Brad Gates announced LaDucer’s dismissal from the department. LaDucer later resigned and in turn filed a lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department accusing the agency of botching an internal investigation into the allegations against him.

In 1998, a fifth woman, Amy L. Maisenbach, 25, also filed a suit accusing LaDucer and other Sheriff’s Department employees of badgering her with sexually suggestive comments during the three years she worked in the agency as an accountant.

The other plaintiffs against LaDucer are: Sheriff’s Lt. Wendy Costello, one of the highest-ranking women in the agency; Mary Ann Hoyt, a civilian worker; and a woman identified only as “Jane N.,” a clerk who accused LaDucer of raping her in his home in 1995. A judge dismissed the rape allegation, saying the statute of limitation had expired. A separate 1998 probe by the district attorney’s office into all the allegations against LaDucer found no criminal wrongdoing.

Epstein said a trial is scheduled for April 19 on Costello’s and Hoyt’s lawsuits.

A trial is yet to be scheduled in the Jane N. and Maisenbach cases, Epstein said.