Harassment at White House Alleged

A pastry chef at the White House, who prepared special cakes and desserts for celebrations in the last two administrations, filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing her boss, the head pastry chef, of “severe sexual harassment” since 1991.

The lawsuit by Franette McCulloch also named President Clinton as a defendant, claiming that as head of the White House he ignored a 1997 law extending the protections of civil rights statutes to White House employees.

She said the White House failed to create a system that would handle civil rights complaints such as her allegations against Roland Mesnier, the head pastry chef and her boss for 17 years.

McCulloch is seeking $1 million in punitive damages from Mesnier and $1 million in compensatory damages from the Clinton administration, in addition to back pay since June 1999, when she took leave from work, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court here.

“My savings have been depleted and I have been forced from a job I loved and devoted myself to,” McCulloch said at a news conference. “My only goal was to be permitted to do my job as a pastry chef in a safe and discrimination-free working environment.”

Clinton is named in the complaint because he heads the White House, McCulloch’s place of employment. In lawsuits of this type, where an employee of a federal bureau or agency files a discrimination suit, the head of the agency is automatically named as a defendant.

White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said Wednesday that, because the issue is “a matter of litigation, I’m not going to comment on this particular case.”

He did, however, insist that the White House has mechanisms for dealing with complaints of discrimination or harassment or other violations of civil rights laws.

“There are internal procedures that exist for all employees who wish to raise these kinds of claims,” Lockhart said. “White House employees that feel they’ve been subject to discrimination may file a grievance with the White House Equal Employment Opportunity Office. These complaints are handled in accordance with federal antidiscrimination law, which requires counseling and mediation before an employee may proceed to court.”

Workers are given information about their rights, including a “15-page manual that explains their rights under the law and the procedures available to protect them,” Lockhart said. “So I think there clearly is a system in place to deal with this.”

The lawsuit brings a taint of scandal to the kitchen of the White House, always regarded as smoothly running. Mesnier and McCulloch were responsible for desserts at White House events ranging from informal birthday parties to elaborate state dinners.

On a display board at her news conference, McCulloch had photos of some of her culinary accomplishments: a “cowboy hat” made of white chocolate and a cake “bale of hay” for a birthday party for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and a “tennis court” cake for a friend of former First Lady Barbara Bush.

Mesnier recruited McCulloch to work at the White House in 1983 after she completed an apprenticeship course that he taught at a cooking academy, the lawsuit said.

There were no problems until 1991, when Mesnier “started discussing his desire to divorce his wife and began making unwelcome sexual propositions to Ms. McCulloch,” the lawsuit said.

After she rejected his repeated advances, the lawsuit said, Mesnier turned hostile and rude to her at work, refusing to include her in dessert planning, one of the key responsibilities of a pastry chef.

McCulloch said in her lawsuit that she discussed her complaints with officials at the White House, who told her that there was nothing they could do and suggested she look elsewhere for a job.

In June 1999, following a doctor’s advice, McCulloch took leave without pay because of stress and has since been living on her savings, she said at the news conference.