New York City Hospital Settles Sexual Harassment Case
The settlement came in a suit by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that Dr. Conrado Ponio fondled and touched the breasts and genitals of at least eight female nurses during pre-employment physical exams, asked prying and embarrassing questions, and threatened to deny or delay their employment if they did not cooperate, according to a report in the New York Law Journal. The suit charges that the events took place while Ponio worked at Lutheran Medical in New York City from 1996 to 2000.
The proposed agreement requires the hospital to pay the $5.4 million in damages, implement a sexual harassment awareness-training program, and promise never to rehire Ponio. The parties submitted the proposed agreement to US District Judge Leonard Sand of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for approval.
After the eight original plaintiffs brought their allegations to the EEOC, the agency canvassed the rest of the hospital’s employees and found that at least 43 other women said they were also victimized.
Complaining to Management
Several of the nurses subjected to
Ponio’s alleged assaults during a December 1999 to
January 2000 orientation complained to hospital
management, and he was fired shortly after. A month
later, Ponio was arrested on misdemeanor sexual abuse
charges filed by the Brooklyn district attorney’s
office.
However, the complaint alleges,
the hospital knew or should have known as early as 1996,
when Ponio was first hired, that he may have been
sexually harassing female employees. Management received
at least one complaint that Ponio unnecessarily required
a woman to remove her bra during an exam, and had
previously been the subject of a complaint filed in
California in 1988, the complaint alleges.
Wendy Goldstein, president and
chief executive of Lutheran Medical Center, said in a
statement that the hospital “deplore[d]” the behavior of
the doctor, “which is contrary to everything in which we
believe.”
Goldstein, who took the post at
Lutheran Medical two years ago, said that “much has
changed” since the hospital first became aware of the
complaints against Ponio. It has put in place a number of
safeguards to “ensure that such intolerable behavior as
Dr. Ponio’s cannot be repeated,” she said.
Ponio was ultimately found guilty
of a non-criminal violation. His license to practice
medicine in New York state was also revoked.