Most women don’t report harassment, discipline panel told

LOS ANGELES -- The vast majority of women never report workplace harassment and that is especially true of women who work in highly prestigious organizations like courts, an expert testified Thursday in the discipline hearing against state Court of Appeal Justice Jeffrey Johnson.

Louise Fitzgerald, a professor emritus at the University of Illinois, testified that just 11% of women report their harassment.

"It is the most consistent finding in the entire body of research on sexual harassment; there are no counterexamples," she said.

When research into the subject of harassment began in the 1980s it was seen as an exception but, "We learned that harassment is not an aberration. In fact it's extremely common and widespread," Fitzgerald said.

Seventeen women have accused Johnson, 58, of misconduct ranging from bullying to groping. Several testified this week the misconduct went on for years, but they did not say anything for fear of professional retaliation. In one of the more searing moments of the hearing, Justice Victoria Chaney described being groped and propositioned in the crudest of terms dozens of times over nine years. She said she didn't speak out about it because she had seen other women pilloried by the press and society at large after they accused powerful men.

Daniel Alexander, a research attorney for Chaney, took the witness stand Thursday afternoon to say he witnessed some of the misconduct Chaney described, and she endured it quietly.

"She would never have reported it," Alexander said.

Chaney is thought to have been one of the first women to report Johnson's misconduct. But Alexander said she was "forced" to speak about her experiences with Johnson. He did not elaborate.

Earlier, Fitzgerald told the panel of three special masters that workers in highly prestigious organizations are less likely to report harassment.

"People who work within them identify very strongly with those organizations" and wouldn't want to bring shame upon their organization by outing the abuse. Fitzgerald named the judiciary as one of these highly valued organizations.

"What do women do if they don't report? How do they handle this situation?" asked Commission on Judicial Performance examiner Emma Bradford.

Fitzgerald said many women employed various mental techniques, such as illusory control or what she called "the red dress phenomenon." This describes behavior in which a person that is being harassed will convince themselves the abuse is taking place because of something they themselves are doing.

Detaching themselves from the abuse or reattributing the motivations of their harasser as less sinister than they appear were other mental tactics used by women who do not report their harassment, Fitzgerald testified.

"Your testimony is that, 'Nobody wants to be a victim' and 'There's no secondary gain to being a victim,'" Johnson's attorney, Paul S. Meyer, said during cross examination.

"The costs of being a victim outweigh the benefits, of which I am completely unaware," Fitzgerald said.

In his opening statement Monday, and again Thursday, Meyer painted Johnson as a victim of the #metoo movement run amok. Most of the behavior alleged never happened, he has said in court papers, and other behavior was innocuous and taken out of context, he has said.

Fitzgerald said most women believe the abuse was only leveled at them and often sought social support within their workplace, mirroring the testimony of several prior witnesses. Chaney testified Wednesday that until recently she was unaware other women were experiencing the same behavior from Johnson she says she endured.

Meyer asked whether "victims who have arranged to have one-on-one contact with the harasser outside of the workplace" were common. Fitzgerald said victims would often go out of their way to be kind to an abuser for fear of persecution or losing their jobs.

Prior to the expert testimony, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Wendy Segall described an awkward and uncomfortable lunch with Johnson where she said he touched her lower back, leered at her and repeatedly complimented her physical appearance.

Commission on Judicial Performance examiner Mark A. Lizarraga asked Segall whether an invitation emailed by Johnson to eat lunch with him made her uncomfortable.

"I was hoping it would be a professional lunch," Segall said, adding that her hopes were dashed when Johnson ogled her. Segall also said she found it odd that Johnson didn't invite the friend she was with when the two first met.

"He looked me up and down and told me how great I look," Segall said. "He was a justice, and I felt very obligated to meet him in his chamber."

The pair walked to Maccheroni Republic, and Johnson "put his hand on the small of my back to guide me," Segall testified.

She quickly pulled away, and the two soon arrived at the restaurant where they ordered food. Segall said Johnson said her ordering a salad must have contributed to her maintaining such a great figure.

When the topic of conversation moved to his children, Segall said Johnson made a strange comment about how "it was fun trying" for his son as he had previously had only daughters.

After more alleged comments about her figure, Johnson pitched setting up a standing lunch between them said Segall. She agreed to that to placate Johnson but later told him she was in a serious relationship and was not interested in dining with him further, she testified.

In his cross examination, Meyer focused on the nature of touching the small of a woman's back to "guide them."

"The other people who have done that, I've known them," Segall testified. "I felt like he wanted to touch me."

Melanie Palmer, a class action attorney at Kiesel Law LLP testified she met Johnson at a 2013 barbecue where he told her he liked to mentor younger attorneys.

The two had dinner together, where she told him she was interested in becoming a deputy district attorney. Johnson said he knew Jackie Lacey, the district attorney of Los Angeles County, and suggested they retire to his chambers at the courthouse.

Once in his chambers, Palmer said Johnson began "coming on" to her, complimenting her legs and body and, she believes, suggesting they sleep together. Later he sent her text messages with emojis, which Palmer said were sexually suggestive.

In his cross examination, Meyer suggested Palmer reciprocated by responding to his texts. But Palmer said she was merely responding to be cordial and did not reciprocate the sexually suggestive nature of the texts.