Vons must pay $18 million for harassment

A Ventura County jury on Friday awarded $18 million to a Vons clerk who claimed he was fired because he said a female supervisor sexually harassed him.

James Stevens, now 48, filed a lawsuit in 2004 alleging that a supervisor, Laura Marko, had taunted him daily with sexual gestures and remarks. Stevens said Marko suggestively held a feather duster between her legs and made crude statements regarding his body.

Stevens said the harassment occurred daily in 2001 and 2002 at the Vons store at Los Angeles and Yosemite avenues in Simi Valley. When he reported the harassment to supervisors, Stevens said, he was transferred to another Simi Valley store and then, in March 2004, fired.

The jury in the civil case awarded Stevens $1.672 million for his economic loss and emotional distress claims. Jurors returned an additional verdict of $16.73 million in punitive damages, finding that Vons had retaliated against Stevens.

Vons spokeswoman Sandra Calderon said in a statement: “We do not think the evidence supported any of Mr. Stevens’ claims and believe the damage award was excessive. We intend to appeal.”

Calderon said Vons trains its staff to prevent harassment and retaliation.

At a news conference at the Los Angeles office of his lawyers, Stevens said he had questioned whether as a man alleging harassment by a woman, and as an African American, he would receive a favorable verdict in Simi Valley. “I was wrong,” he said, “pleasingly so.”

Stevens, a soft-spoken man who said he was a devout Christian, said he hoped to inspire other men to take action. “Some very masculine men might be reluctant to come forward,” he said. Yet in his case, “A jury unanimously agreed with me and stood behind me.”

A Camarillo resident and father of three, Stevens had worked at Vons since 1978. His son James, 24, stood behind him at the news conference. Stevens said he had been glad to work for the company, saying his job enabled him to put his son through Pepperdine University. “Vons helped raise my family,” he said.

Stevens was married when he worked at the store. Nathan Goldberg, one of Stevens’ lawyers, said being fired put Stevens into a depression that was partly to blame for the breakup of his marriage.

Goldberg said Marko resigned from Vons a year after Stevens complained.

Goldberg described Stevens as a man of conservative values who “sent all his children to private Christian schools and was not one to engage in talk about sexual conduct at work.” Stevens said his father had taught him “to always work as though God is watching you,” and thus he was greatly disturbed by the alleged sexually charged behavior at his job.

peter.hong@latimes.com