THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 3, 1995 TAG: 9511030500
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Pamela C. Black, a Suffolk police officer since 1986, has filed a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment by the deputy police chief and inaction by the chief.
Black charges that Deputy Chief William V. Dunning showered her with ``excessive attention,'' and ``displayed anger'' when she wasn't ``receptive and or available'' for attention, and that he put her boyfriend, fellow police officer John King, on probation and moved her from administrative duties to the night shift because of ``her refusal to accede'' to his ``attentions.''
Chief Gilbert F. Jackson is named in the suit because he failed to take disciplinary action against Dunning, the suit says.
Dunning is second in command under Jackson, who oversees about 146 police officers. When Jackson is absent, Dunning serves in his post.
The suit alleges these incidents between October 1993, and June 21 1994:
On Oct. 16, 1993, Dunning placed in Black's locked police vehicle a sweat suit, with a message ``to snuggle up in it and think of him while studying for the sergeant's exam.''
In November 1993, when Dunning took Black and other DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance and Education) officers to dinner in Virginia Beach, he allegedly kissed and hugged Black.
Dunning gave Black several unwanted cards and gifts, including a CD player, cellular telephone and a Mickey Mouse wrist watch. Black turned over the gifts to the Suffolk Police Department's internal affairs division.
In March 1994, after another dinner with Dunning, Black found all four tires of her police car flat when the two returned to police headquarters. She declined Dunning's offer to drive her home.
The next morning, Black found Dunning putting air into the tires. When she attempted to file a vandalism report, Dunning offered to pay for the tire damage, estimated at $460.
In April 1994, when Black attended a baseball game with her boyfriend, Dunning paged her, then screamed at her for going with King.
In June 1994, the suit says, Black reported the alleged harassment to her superiors, Sgt. S.C. Hicks and Sgt. J.J. Marx.
Marx said he would relay the allegations to Internal Affairs, the document says, but warned that she knew ``. . . what would happen'' if her claim was not found to be substantiated. Black was then transferred, with other DARE officers, to the investigative services division.
The suit says Dunning attended a city-sponsored class on sexual harassment in the work place in December 1993.
Filed in October in Suffolk Circuit Court, it seeks $500,000 in compensatory damage and $350,000 in punitive damage.
Neither Black nor her attorney, John W. Brown, could be reached for comment Thursday. Jackson and Dunning did not return calls. City Attorney Edward C. Roettger could not be reached.
Black has been with the department since September 1986. Both Jackson and Dunning began with the department in 1970.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT SEXUAL HARASSMENT SUFFOLK POLICE
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