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Clifford v. American Drug Stores8/22/2005
called in to meet with Mike Perez of the loss prevention department. She described for him the specifics of her sexual harassment claim against Doose. Perez replied that he was not interested and was more concerned about the employee discount issue. Stange felt that he was looking for a way to fire her and did not care about the sexual harassment. Approximately two weeks later, Perez informed his superior, Peter Bartholomew, about her complaints.
In August 1997, Stange contacted Clifford by telephone, looking for witnesses, because she felt that the company did not believe her accusations. The following month, she retained an attorney. Stange spoke to Clifford several times by telephone, telling her about the sexual harassment and "horrible retaliation," and they met once prior to May 1998.
Sometime after August 1997, a new manager, Ken Maddocks, was installed at the Diamond Bar store. Within 30 days, he had written her up 20 or 30 times, and gradually took her out of customer service by demoting her first to checking, and then to "what the kids did"-- cleaning ice cream off the floors, scooping ice cream, emptying trash cans, washing walls, and picking up trash. Gradually, Stange's vacations were taken away.
When Stange told the store's operating manager, Richard Featherstone, what was happening, Featherstone warned her to stay away from Maddocks, because he was basically out to get her. When he transferred to the store, Maddocks had said to Featherstone, "`I give her two weeks and she'll be out of here.'"
When she was demoted to checker, Stange complained to Brad Adams. Adams agreed that it was not right, but told her to be glad that she was not put on ice cream, because that is what "we" do when employees irritate "us." He told her he would speak to Maddocks and try to find out what was going on, but he never called her back, even when she called him three more times after she was put on ice cream.
Stange had a seizure disorder and took medication for it. She was not supposed to be on ladders and she had told Maddocks this, but still, he sent her up ladders. Once, she had a seizure at the check stand, and he left her unconscious on the floor for about 20 minutes until another manager came in and called 911. She again complained to Adams, telling him that Maddocks was retaliating for her having made a sexual harassment complaint, but Adams did nothing. She left Sav-On's employ in November 1998.
Featherstone testified that Stange was a very good worker, and that he was able to observe the relationship between her and Maddocks. Maddocks gave her such assignments as climbing a ladder, chasing balloons, filling balloons, and filling product from the back room to the shelves. He gave her more such tasks than he gave other employees, and assigned some tasks that were impossible to perform, such as obtaining products from the warehouse in an unreasonably short t
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