July 27, 1997

The High Cost Of Sexual Harassment

By JENNIFER PRESTON

At first, the State Attorney General, Peter Verniero, said he felt no need to publicly discuss his decision that New Jersey pay $344,873.82 in lawyers' fees and settlement costs in the sexual harassment case brought against the state Republican chairman, Chuck Haytaian.

Mr. Verniero said the state had handled the lawsuit brought by Beth Herbert, an administrative assistant at the State House, ''by the book.'' Since it had been handled like other cases, he did not think there was much to talk about.

But it was inevitable that questions would be raised. Ever since Ms. Herbert sued Mr. Haytaian shortly before his planned resignation as Speaker of the Assembly early last year, the case has presented a problem for Governor Whitman.

It was Mrs. Whitman who appointed Mr. Haytaian, one of the state's most powerful politicians, as chairman of the state Republican Party. When the lawsuit was filed, Mrs. Whitman, who is the first woman to serve as New Jersey's Governor, found herself defending her choice as party chairman and arguing that he should remain as chairman unless the allegations against him are proved.

Now, Mrs. Whitman and Mr. Haytaian can put this messy matter behind them before her re-election campaign begins. Before the state agreed to pay Ms. Herbert $175,000 to settle the matter, she dropped her lawsuit against Mr. Haytaian, and he dropped his defamation suit against her.

The allegations against Mr. Haytaian have not been proven. Yet, despite this expenditure of taxpayer dollars, they have not been disproven, either.

So how or why would the state of New Jersey pay $175,000 in taxpayer dollars for settlement costs and another $169,873.82 in taxpayer dollars for legal fees to represent the state and Mr. Haytaian in this case?

Under current state law, as Mr. Verniero points out, the state is required to provide legal representation and cover court costs for state employees and elected officials who are sued while on the job.

After all, if a state highway employee inadvertently breaks a homeowner's sewer pipe while resurfacing a roadway, he or she should not be expected to pay for a legal defense and court fees in the event of a lawsuit.

There are now about 3,000 lawsuits pending against state employees. About three dozen of them involve sexual harassment, state officials said. Since 1995, the state has paid out about $1.9 million in settlement costs, and legal fees in cases involving sexual harassment.

In fact, the state Attorney General can decide against providing legal representation for a state employee only if there is a determination that the employee was involved in ''willful misconduct.'' Only a handful of cases are rejected because of ''willful misconduct,'' state officials said.

Regarding Mr. Haytaian, Mr. Verniero said: ''There was no finding of misconduct in the Haytaian case. The bottom line in the Haytaian case is we did this by the book.''

That is true. There was no finding of misconduct because there was no investigation by the Legislature or the Attorney General's office to determine if any misconduct took place before the decision was made by the state to hire attorneys on Mr. Haytaian's behalf.

Mr. Verniero said that there was no time to make an assessment of ''willful misconduct'' in this case. He said that the state had only 35 days after Ms. Herbert filed her lawsuit to decide whether to defend Mr. Haytaian, who he has adamantly denied the charges from the beginning.

Yet the state Attorney General's office knew of Ms. Herbert's complaints a full five months before she filed her lawsuit. She first made her allegations about Mr. Haytaian during a deposition taken in August 1995 by a deputy attorney general handling another sexual harassment lawsuit brought against an employee at the Office of Legislative Services.

And, as a result of Ms. Herbert's testimony in the deposition, the Attorney General's office retained an outside lawyer on Ms. Herbert's behalf. So, while there may have been 35 days for the Whitman administration to make up its mind after Ms. Herbert filed her lawsuit in early 1996, the Attorney General's office knew there was a potential liability for at least five months before.

There was also a sexual harassment policy created in 1993 for employees of the State Legislature. Yet even though officials in the Legislature knew about the allegations, the process was not followed in this case. The ''sexual harassment officer'' was not notified. There was no probe, no formal investigation.

''The bottom line, in the Haytaian case, is we did this by the book,'' Mr. Verniero said. ''Perhaps the book needs to be amended, but it is what it is.''

Mr. Verniero is right. Perhaps it does need to be amended. Ms. Herbert got $175,000 for making allegations that were never proved. And Mr. Haytaian, who has described the allegations from the beginning as ''false and totally without foundation,'' never got a chance to prove that they are untrue.

Jennifer Preston is Trenton bureau chief of The New York Times

There's a poll up on YayBoo to vote-on your favorite sex scandal:

http://www.yayboo.com/Politics/Favorite_Political_Sex_Scandal

It is a wicked twist of logic that places Sen. Hart as #2 on this list. He was never even accused of a criminal act -- nor was anything actually proved, despite the unprecedented invasion of privacy. He and his only wife have been married for almost 50 years. Isn't it time to leave them alone?

If all the women former NJ Gov. Donny D. ever harrassed or forced to have sex came forward he would be at the top of the list.

Dan Sickles was a democrat Congressman from New York ( later a Civil War General and hero at Gettysburg. As an Assemblyman he was censured for carrying on with a hooker and taking her to London with him while his wife (15 years his junior) was pregnant. Apparently what was good for the goose was not good for the gander, because in 1859 he sot and killed Phillip Key (son of Francis Scott Key) in Lafayette park across from the White House for having an affair with his wife.

This should have been in the top 10!

New Jersey and Oregon both have 2 in the top 10. Coincidentally, we're the only 2 states that don't have self-service gas. I guess we prefer having strangers handling our nozzles.

Hands down clinton is the greatest sex scandal followed by that senator caught in a bathroom. You'd think that being in such high positions the could have maybe used some independent escorts like spitzer, im sure there are plenty who still cater to prominent officials.