
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 30, 1994                   TAG: 9401300147
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D13   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PIKEVILLE, KY.                                LENGTH: Short

HARASSMENT SUIT AGAINST MINE INSPECTOR OK'D

A judge ruled Friday that a former federal mining inspector sexually assaulted a female subordinate, and a jury should decide if damages are warranted.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Hood made the ruling in a lawsuit filed by Sandra Barber, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration's first female mine-inspection supervisor.

Barber sued Nickie Brewer of Wise, Va., MSHA's former Pikeville subdistrict manager, in 1992 for sexual harassment. She claimed that he exposed himself and touched her on the breast during an inspection tour in September 1991.

The trial on damages is scheduled for Monday in U.S. District Court at Pikeville. She is seeking $400,000.

Brewer was fired in May 1992 after 18 years with the agency based on allegations from Barber and four other female MSHA employees. Brewer appealed his dismissal to the federal Merit Systems Protection Board, saying a supervisor wanted to get rid of him and coerced the women into making the charges.

An administrative law judge upheld the dismissal, and a merit board panel denied his request for a review.

In his ruling, Hood said the earlier decisions proved the truth of Barber's allegations.

by CNB