$200,000 Settlement Offered to Female Firefighter for Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

October 13, 2009

San Jose - City officials have offered $200,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Julia LaBlanc, a fire engineer who previously worked at Station No. 6.

LaBlanc filed the case last April 2008, where she alleged she got harassed by co-workers after she complained about the presence of pornography in the fire station where her 9-year old son managed to get copies of it from the station.

According to LaBlanc, when she reported that she also found 60 copies of hardcore pornography magazines in the station, her fellow firefighters gave her a hard time at work by withholding important information and also ignored or taunted her.

Her complaint has also led to the city-wide hunt for sexually explicit magazines at firehouses across San Jose. The city has a policy against sexually explicit material in the workplace, also had a dispute with the firefighters union over policing porn and other behavior in a fire department.

City Attorney Rick Doyle said that it was a good settlement in order to make sure that their workplace is safe for all their employees. If the settlement gets approved by the City Council, the settlement will be the second major sexual harassment settlement in years.