August 11, 1994,4 Female Workers Sue Fairfax Police;
3 Officers, Civilian Accuse Lieutenant of Repeated Sexual Harassment Three female police officers and a civilian employee sued the Fairfax County Police Department yesterday for $ 1 million, claiming a male supervisor sexually harassed them at times during the last 12 years. The women alleged that Lt. Larry Jackson repeatedly made unwanted suggestive remarks and overtures. Two of them said he retaliated after they complained about his behavior to his superiors by filing petty or phony disciplinary charges against them."This has been a recurring pattern," said Carla Markim Siegel, an attorney for the women. "These women didn't know each other. They complained independently, and the department didn't take adequate measures to prevent it from happening again... . It creates a hostile work environment." The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, rekindles a controversy surrounding the treatment of women in the 1,036-member department. Two years ago, 10 female officers complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about a "locker room attitude" in the department and said they had been denied promotions and key assignments because of their sex.Although the county drafted a policy against sexual harassment last year, the suit contends that women continue to be subjected to abuse. Police Chief Michael W. Young and Jackson also were named as defendants.Maj. Richard Rappoport, a police spokesman, said the department has acted swiftly in cases involving workplace harassment. All supervisors underwent training last year in ways to detect and address sexual harassment, he said. He declined comment on the allegations against Jackson, saying he had not seen the lawsuit.Jackson referred questions to his attorney when reached at his office in the department's West Springfield station. The lawyer, Kristin R. Blair, said the allegations are false and stem from a "racially hostile" work environment that "encourages unfounded claims and promotes exaggerations against minorities."Jackson filed an EEOC complaint alleging racial discrimination seven months ago, and that case is pending, Blair said. "I feel that Larry is just being made out as some fiend and he's really a straight arrow," she said.The suit was filed by Officers Susan Long, Cynthia McAlister and Elizabeth Dohm and Andrea Moss, a civilian communication aide, all of whom worked under Jackson's supervision at various times during his 17-year police career.Their lawyer, Siegel, said race had nothing to do with the lawsuit.Among other things, Long said Jackson once ordered her back to the office while she was on the way to a burglary call to ask her out to lunch. He also suggested she use her "sex appeal" to get him new uniforms, the suit said.McAlister said that Jackson made advances while the two took a private airplane ride in 1982 and that her colleagues later ridiculed her about the incident. Moss said Jackson made up a list of phony disciplinary charges against her last year after he learned she complained about him to the department's internal affairs unit. On another occasion, she said she found computer records that falsely showed Jackson had disciplined her.Dohm also said she was disciplined by Jackson after talking about him to internal affairs investigators three years ago.