Ex-Angels Aide Alleges Harassment : Workplace: A former employee says team retaliated when she complained to state about sexual, racial comments.

By MATT LAIT

Nov. 19, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

ANAHEIM — A former administrative assistant to the California Angels has filed a complaint with state authorities, claiming that her bosses and a co-worker frequently harassed her with inappropriate sexual comments and ethnic slurs.

“It was a living nightmare working for them,” said Natalia Sweeney, who also alleges that she was fired last month in retaliation for having taken her complaint to the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing in April. “I am a broken woman because of what they did to me.”

The 53-year-old Orange woman contends that her supervisors and a colleague in the Angels’ marketing department used “vulgar” language to make fun of her diminutive size and Latina heritage. She also claims that several of her supervisors made rude and “humiliating” sexual comments to her.

John Sevano, director of creative services for the Angels, denied that there had been any harassment of Sweeney.

“The allegations are preposterous,” Sevano said. “The Angels and our attorney conducted a thorough investigation and found no evidence to substantiate any of it.”

A lawyer for the Angels said Wednesday that Sweeney was not fired, but that she was laid off when her position was eliminated.

Sweeney said that before her termination, the Angels’ management had at first retaliated by being hostile toward her, demoting her and making her work “in a closet” in an attempt to make her quit. When she would not resign, she said in an interview from her home, she was told she was being laid off.

Sweeney also alleges that she has been unable to collect unemployment benefits because the Angels are withholding some necessary paperwork.

“I went from executive assistant with important duties to typing labels,” Sweeney said about the demotion. “I was more qualified than that.”

Named in Sweeney’s complaint are Sevano; Kevin Uhlich, the Angels assistant vice president and director of facilities and operations; and Larry Babcock, an administrative assistant.

According to the complaint, Sweeney had gone to Uhlich, who was her supervisor, to report the alleged harassment by Sevano and Babcock, but Uhlich did nothing about the situation.

Uhlich, reached at the Angel offices Wednesday, called Sweeney’s charges “preposterous.”

In detailing her charge, Sweeney said the Angels eliminated her position as an excuse to get her out of the organization.

“They always tried to humiliate me,” said Sweeney, who had worked for the Angels for nearly three years.

On the last day of work, she said, “they searched my belongings like I was a criminal. They never searched anyone else who left the organization.”

Sweeney said she did nothing to deserve the treatment she received and did not know why her bosses tried to make her life miserable.

Officials with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing declined to discuss the case as a matter of policy. A state investigator handling Sweeney’s complaint said his probe into the matter should be complete early next year.

In the meantime, Sweeney has gone to an attorney and says she intends to file a civil suit against the organization within a few weeks.

For Sweeney, the loss of her job came at a difficult time.

She said that the organization let her go just a week after her ex-husband had died.

“He was still in the morgue when I was fired,” she said. “I didn’t even have enough money to bury him.”

Also, Sweeney said, the termination will leave her without medical insurance at the end of November. She said the coverage is needed by her 13-year-old son, who has glaucoma and requires frequent treatments.