PacBell Loses Tustin Sex Bias Case

WESTMINSTER — In a major judgment, a Superior Court jury has awarded $2.5 million in damages to a telephone installer who sued Pacific Bell, alleging she was sexually harassed for years at the utility’s Tustin service garage.

The worker, Charlotte Ernsting, contended in her lawsuit that PacBell co-workers at the Myford garage repeatedly made sexually derogatory remarks, grabbed her buttocks and endangered her life by dispatching her to high crime areas after dark.

After a monthlong trial, the jury awarded the 48-year-old Costa Mesa woman about $682,000 in compensatory damages and another $1.8 million in punitive damages. Ernsting, who went on leave in 1993 after 25 years with the company, was not immediately available for comment.

“This verdict tells us that this type of treatment will not be tolerated,” said the plaintiff’s attorney, Gerald N. Shelley of Costa Mesa. “Co-workers can’t do this, and supervisors can’t just ignore it.”

PacBell officials denied any wrongdoing by the facility’s employees and said the company will appeal. “There was no sexual harassment and no hostile work environment,” said David Dickstein, PacBell spokesman.

Company officials also said all employees receive sensitivity training to help prevent sexual harassment.

PacBell, however, reached an out-of-court settlement with another plaintiff in the case, Donna Langhauser, who also sued for sexual harassment. Both sides signed an agreement keeping terms of the settlement confidential.

The Westminster jury’s award earlier this week is not the largest in a sexual harassment case in the state. In 1994, for example, the law firm of Baker & McKenzie of San Francisco was hit with a $3.8-million judgment when a jury found a secretary had been sexually harassed.

Ernsting was subjected to harassment as soon as she transferred in 1990 to the Tustin garage, where six of about 75 service technicians were women, Shelley said. Service technicians install phone service to homes and businesses and often are required to climb telephone poles in their jobs.

During her first day on the job, Ernsting was booed by a group of male co-workers, according to her lawsuit. Her complaints to supervisors about mistreatment were ignored, according to the suit.

Ernsting also was sent to work in known gang areas after dark, even though supervisors wouldn’t dispatch male workers under similar circumstances, the lawsuit said.

After three years at the facility, the harassment culminated in 1993 with a group of male co-workers making degrading comments about her work and her body, according to the lawsuit.

Ernsting took a stress leave and sought counseling, Shelley said.