Sexual Harassment Los Angeles

Together, they came to take a stand Thursday, this handful of former strangers, these women who had been singled out by stalker David Arthur Carlsberg. On the day of his sentencing in the Santa Monica courthouse, three victims of one man's obsession offered him the same exacting look with which he had menaced them at different times, on different streets, in different darkened public garages, day and night, over the years.

Together, they came to take a stand Thursday, this handful of former strangers, these women who had been singled out by stalker David Arthur Carlsberg. On the day of his sentencing in the Santa Monica courthouse, three victims of one man's obsession offered him the same exacting look with which he had menaced them at different times, on different streets, in different darkened public garages, day and night, over the years.

A judge has delayed an administrative court hearing expected to determine whether Charles Parcell, the Pasadena schools security chief, can be fired for alleged misuse of a district cellular telephone, misappropriation of a computer and sexual harassment. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge stopped the hearing from proceeding as scheduled Tuesday, after Parcell's attorney, James Farley, filed a writ.

Two months after three female police officers won a $3.5-million verdict, the city of Glendale is asking the court for a new trial on the sexual harassment allegations. Los Angeles County jurors in June found the city liable for maintaining a hostile work environment at the Glendale Police Department.

In a ruling that could encourage more women to file sexual harassment charges, a federal appeals court in San Francisco took a swipe Wednesday at "male-biased" legal standards, adopting a novel "reasonable woman" perspective for judging harassment cases. "The judge acknowledged that the existing (legal) theories and perspectives are male-influenced," said Susan Rubenstein, a San Francisco attorney who specializes in sexual harassment and civil rights cases.

Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen has been sued for sexual harassment in Los Angeles Superior Court by a woman who says she was fired from one of the billionaire's businesses after twice rejecting his sexual advances on a business trip three years ago. Allen strongly denied the charges brought by Abbie Phillips, a former manager and partner in Storyopolis Investments, his Los Angeles-based film, television and interactive media company.

Buoyed by increased funding under the Obama administration, federal officials in Los Angeles are boosting efforts to educate immigrant communities about U.S. laws against racial bias and sexual harassment. The Los Angeles regional office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has tripled the number of investigators from eight to 24 in the last year, hiring people fluent in Korean, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Portuguese and American Sign Language. And early this month, the office held its first training seminar for immigrant employers on federal anti-discrimination laws.

Melissa Kelley thought she knew what she was getting into when she joined the Los Angeles Fire Department five years ago. Her grandfather had been a firefighter. She held a degree in fire science. She'd spent five years fighting fires with the California Department of Forestry. She knew the firehouse could be an uncomfortable place for a woman. She'd heard that female recruits were drilled harder, judged more harshly and sometimes harassed and ridiculed.

She was the new employee, and the first woman to work in the warehouse. Soon she was one of the guys, trading playful punches with her four Department of Water and Power colleagues and withstanding a daily litany of dirty jokes. But eventually it went well beyond offensive words and roughhousing and ended in charges of rape in the workplace. The single mother was reassigned for her own protection and three of the four men were discharged for sexual harassment, according to city documents.