jury verdict for sexual harassment
ANN ARBOR – Louis McWherter’s lawsuit against the City of Ann Arbor sends a clear message to women:
It’s OK for women to report sexual harassment in the workplace and it’s illegal for employers to retaliate against them.
So says attorney James Fett after a Washtenaw County Circuit Court jury awarded $255,000 in damages for his client, McWherter, on Friday.
McWherter, a city parking referee sued Dean Bowerbank, an operations analyst in the Ann Arbor transportation department, for sexual harassment. McWherter also sue the city of Ann Arbor and her supervisor, John Avendt, transportation division manager, for retaliating against her because of her complaints of sexual harassment, which go back about three years.
While elated with the outcome, a still-shaking McWherter said she did not want to comment but preferred Fett do so.
“I’m very gratified the system worked in this case,” Fett said. “That’s what you worry about in a sexual harassment case. In the 1980s, only 39 percent of sexual harassment cases were successful. Now, the statistics are getting better.
Women always fear that sexual harassment is just a fact of life, and they don’t report it because they fear no one will believe them. But women don’t have to put up with it.”
Mayor Ingrid B. Sheldon said Friday night that she did not know if the city would appeal.
“We had indication from our legal staff that we should feel pretty comfortable pursuing it in court after we were unable to settle out of court,” the mayor said. “Evidently they were wrong, or rather the jury thought otherwise.”
The three week trial consisted mostly of testimony from former and current city employees who knew about problems between Bowerbank and McWherter.
McWherter recounted her experiences with Bowerbank touching and grabbing her inappropriately and making comments about parts of her body, such as having “shapely hips.”
McWherter also testified that she was retaliated against in different ways by Avendt, one of which was receiving poor evaluations of her work after she filed her sexual harassment complaint.
Fett said the strongest factor in the case was McWherter because the jury believed her. And juror Gail Bauer of Chelsea said that’s how the jury’s decision was reached.
“Lois’ testimony was strong in relation to the evidence that was presented,” Bauer said after the case was over. “There were weaknesses in Bowerbank’s testimony. He could not give an explanation to anything.”
Bauer also said the case was an eye-opener for her. “I learned there are a lot of men who are more prejudiced than I thought.”
Because the case has been televised nationally by “Court TV,” Fett said, it was a nationwide lesson.
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I’m really happy that Court TV covered this case because this is an education for the country in sexual harassment.
This case was covered by numerous outlets and was aired on Court TV. Article originally published in the Ann Arbor News.