The dean of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law has been sued for sexual harassment by his executive assistant, who claims he inappropriately hugged, kissed and touched her starting in 2014, according to court documents.
The complaint was filed Tuesday against Berkeley Law Dean Sujit Choudhry and the University of California Board of Regents.
Tyann Sorrell, the executive assistant, claims in the lawsuit that soon after Choudhry became dean in 2014, he began rubbing her shoulders and arms, kissing her cheeks and giving her bear hugs that pressed her body against him, according to court documents.
“Choudhry’s kissing and hugging plaintiff was a near daily occurrence,” according to the documents. Sorrell said it made her feel “disgusted, humiliated, exposed and dirty.”
Attorneys for Sorrell, 41, are suing for sexual harassment, retaliation and failure to prevent sexual harassment and retaliation, among other actions.
The suit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, claims that between September 2014 and March 2015 Choudhry sexually harassed Sorrell — and that when she told supervisors, they first failed to stop it and then tried to retaliate against her for complaining.
Berkeley Law officials declined comment, saying it was “a personnel issue.”
Berkeley Law — one of the nation’s most prestigious law schools — has a history with sexual harassment allegations against its leaders.
In 2002, the school’s then-dean, John Dwyer, resigned after he was accused of sexually harassing a former law student, according to the Daily Californian, Berkeley’s student newspaper.
He “admitted to having a single consensual encounter with a student two years ago but denied charges of sexual harassment,” according to newspaper.
In an internal memo cited by the Daily Californian at the time, Dwyer said the encounter “reflected a serious error in judgment on my part and was inappropriate.”
He added: “I believe I can no longer effectively lead the school.”
Sorrell began working as executive assistant in 2012 to then-dean Christopher Edley.
Then Choudhry took over as the law school’s dean in July 2014.
Within a few months, Sorrell claims, Choudhry started to initiate sexual contact.
“The hugs became tighter and more lingering and the kissing more intimate in that over time Choudhry’s kisses began to land closer and closer” to her mouth, according to court documents.
“She wondered what she had done to make him think it was OK for him to touch her,” the lawsuit states. “She was worried about her reputation and what her work colleagues thought of her. At the same time, she worried about upsetting him and possibly losing her job, on which her family depended.”
Sorrell said she is a victim of domestic and sexual abuse and claims in the lawsuit that the sexual contact made her anxious and depressed — causing her to lose sleep and dread her work.
She claims she suffered from “insomnia, hair loss, depression and anxiety” as a result.
By March 2015, Sorrell said she had “had enough” and wrote a six-page email to Choudhry, telling him she felt “violated and humiliated” and forwarded the email to human resources, according to court documents.
It was reported to UC Berkeley’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, which found in July 2015 that Choudhry had violated the university’s policy on sexual harassment and violence, according to court documents.
“During the investigation, Dean Choudhry admitted to hugging, kissing, messaging (sic) and/or caressing” her several times a week, according to the documents. He purportedly said he had grabbed her hands, “putting them on his waist.
“He also admitted to hugging and kissing other female employees.”
University officials reduced the dean’s salary by 10 percent for one year and ordered him to write a letter of apology to Sorrell, according to the documents.
Sorrell claims in the lawsuit that a university official later told her that he had “seriously considered terminating the dean but that the reason he had decided not to was because it would ruin the dean’s career, that is, destroy his future chances for higher appointment.”
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Lindsey Bever – Photo source: tippingthescales.com
