The city of Oakland is facing a $2.6 million payout after a jury found that city officials failed to protect an employee from years of sexual harassment.
An Alameda County Superior Court jury on Monday unanimously found that Oakland failed to protect the plaintiff, Patricia Toscano, who worked at the East Oakland Senior Center, and retaliated against her when she came forward, according to the woman’s lawyers.
Toscano, an East Oakland native, worked at the center for nearly a decade as an administrative assistant.
After filing a lawsuit in 2021, she and other employees testified that a custodial services supervisor, Frank Knight, “created a sexually hostile work environment for years, including furtively touching Toscano, trying to kiss her, and sitting for hours at the senior center’s front desk where he engaged in constant sexual ‘locker room’ talk and leered at Toscano,” according to a news release from Toscano’s lawyers.
Toscano said nothing was done following her complaints to the city until two years later when an anonymous call to a tip line led to an internal investigation.
That investigation found that Knight, who was eventually dismissed from the lawsuit, violated the city’s sexual harassment policy and that the city’s Human Services Department failed to comply with city policies designed to prevent harassment, said Toscano’s lawyer Sharon Vinick.
Threatened and reassigned
Through it all, the city failed to remove Knight from Toscano’s work environment, threatened her with discipline and termination and ultimately reassigned her to a different senior center, Vinick said.
“It means a lot to me that the jury was unanimous. After not being listened to for so long, I feel somehow freer,” Toscano said. “And I hope that the verdict will send a clear message to the city that they need to believe people who come forward rather than ignoring us. Someone needs to take a hard look at how they are running things.”
It is unclear if Knight, who still works for the city, or any of the city managers who failed to protect Toscano have faced disciplinary action.
City Attorney Barbara Parker is mulling over whether to appeal the jury’s verdict.
“The City Attorney’s Office is disappointed in the jury’s verdict and the team is weighing the City’s options at this time,” Parker said in an emailed statement Wednesday.