One former Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputy receives $160,000, another gets nothing on sexual harassment claims

Sonoma County has agreed to pay $160,000 to settle a $3 million sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed two years ago by two former female sheriff's deputies.

Lauren Ferrara, a former patrol deputy, accepted a $160,000 offer from the county to drop her suit. Former jail Sgt. Robin Smith agreed to drop her claim with no monetary award, according to court records and attorneys involved with the case.

In a federal lawsuit filed in March 2005, the women claimed they were treated differently from their male counterparts because of their gender and that they were subject to numerous incidents of sexual harassment and retaliation after reporting it. Ferrara also claimed she was discriminated against because of her sexual orientation.

The settlement does not include an admission of liability from the county. County officials said the payout to Ferrara doesn't mean the Sheriff's Department admits any inappropriate behavior from its employees.

"We did an independent investigation on both cases . . . and found no wrongdoing on the part of sheriff's office," Sheriff Bill Cogbill said. "We hired people from the outside to do that, with expertise in those issues, and they found no wrongdoing."

In a separate but related claim settled in June, Smith agreed to end a suit against the county's janitorial service in connection with a career-ending back injury she said she suffered during a brief return to work in 2005.

The terms of that settlement are confidential and are intertwined with the discrimination suit, said her attorney, Rick Simons of Hayward. The county had an interest in that settlement because it had paid worker's compensation benefits for Smith.

"There was, in essence, a settlement of the employment case that had overlapping effects with the janitorial negligence case," he said.

The women had sought to force the Sheriff's Department to hire more women at all management levels, assign more women to prestigious units, such as the SWAT and violent crimes investigation teams, and hire an independent consultant to help revise the department's current sexual harassment policy.

The lawsuit also asked the court to order changes in the current policy and to include specific disciplinary measures against harassers.

Assistant County Counsel Anne Keck said the Sheriff's Department reviewed the women's complaints and determined that current procedures were sufficient.

"The sheriff believes there are no changes that have to be made in department policy or procedures to address any of the issues that arose," she said.

Smith was hired in the jail in 1990 and was fired following an April 2002 incident involving the use of force on an inmate in a restraint chair who spit in the face of a correctional officer.

She was reinstated with back pay in 2003 by the Civil Service Commission after it determined she did not make false statements about the incident, as her supervisor had charged.

She fell and injured her back in 2005, Simons said, and left the department on a disability retirement.

Ferrara was hired in 2001 and resigned in July 2004.

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 568-5312 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com