A former University employee filed a sexual harassment suit in civil court Monday against the Board of Supervisors, a design professor and a former LSUPD officer.
Mary Jennings, former university administrative specialist to the chairman of the Marketing Department, alleged in the lawsuit that design Professor Abhijit Biswas and former LSUPD officer Robert Jones made unsolicited and unwelcome sexual remarks to her.
The Reveille was unable to contact Biswas or his lawyer, and Jennings’ attorney Jill Craft did not return repeated phone calls before press time.
Jennings gave a deposition March 2, 2002, for a sexual harassment case concerning Joy Irwin, a former instructor and assistant dean of the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration. The lawsuit stated LSU guaranteed she was protected federally from harassment and reprisal. It was after this deposition Jennings started to receive harassment.
The lawsuit alleged Biswas made unsolicited and unwelcome sexual remarks to Jennings about her body, engaging in sexual relations with her and sexual innuendo. He allegedly directly solicited Jennings for sexual relations, touched her in a sexual manner without her consent — leaving bruises, finger marks, and scratches on Jennings’ breasts, buttocks, thighs, arms and legs. Biswas allegedly attempted to and forced Jennings to kiss him on several occasions and offered Jennings financial rewards in exchange for engaging in sexual relations with him.
The lawsuit claims Jennings reported the behavior to LSU, but no action was taken. It also said Jennings reported the behavior to LSU through Jones beginning in August 2001.
The lawsuit claims after she reported Biswas to Jones, Jones began harassing her. Jennings also began tape recording several interactions with Biswas.
“Under the guise of ‘investigating’ Jennings’ complaints of sexual harassment, Jones made repeated contact with Jennings in person and by telephone,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit said Jennings told Jones she no longer wanted to discuss the matter with him when he called her Dec. 14, 2001. Jones then ordered her to accompany him to LSUPD and demanded she give him the tape recordings.
The lawsuit also claims Jones ordered Jennings to give him her keys, which required her to stay at LSUPD for several hours. When she left, Jennings claimed Jones told her he had spoken with her supervisor, threatened to have her arrested and threatened she would lose her job.
The lawsuit alleges Jones made several unauthorized entries into Jennings’ home with a copied key he made when Jennings gave him her keys at LSUPD.
Jennings also alleges Jones had a “shadow” program installed onto her computer, allowing him access to her personal e-mails.
In addition, the lawsuit said Jones sent sexually explicit e-mails and Web pages to Jennings.
These actions continued until Jones was arrested Aug. 23, 2002, for downloading child pornography on campus while working for LSUPD. He still is in federal custody.
Jennings filed a charge of discrimination with the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and received a notice giving her permission to sue Nov. 15, 2002.
Jennings is suing for incidents of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, libel, slander, invasion of privacy and abuse of Jennings’ rights.
She is suing for damages that include severe emotional distress, humiliation, mental anguish, embarrassment, past and future medical expenses, loss of earning capacity and loss of her reputation and standing in the community.