In a landmark sexual harassment case, a Leicester man has won more than $800,000 from the Norton Company, where he claims he was harassed on the job by another man for 3 1/2 years.
The case - the first jury verdict on same-sex harassment in Massachusetts - comes on the heels of a US Supreme Court ruling in March that federal law prohibiting gender bias applies to same-sex harassment.
Donald Belanger claimed in Worcester Superior Court that the Norton Company created an intimidating, hostile, humiliating, and sexually offensive workplace.
Belanger, a former quality control inspector, said that beginning in 1991, a coworker, Carlo Trafecante, began making unwelcome sexual advances, which he reported to his supervisor. The supervisor, Alan Harty, not only failed to address the situation, he repeatedly enjoined Belanger to ''turn the other cheek'' and ''be a Christian,'' Belanger claimed.
Dottie Wackerman, vice president of communications for Norton, would not comment on details of the case.
''I can only say we acted in good faith,'' she said.
Wackerman said Norton has filed post-trial motions claiming the evidence did not support the verdict and aiming to reduce the judgment. Depending on the outcome of those motions, she said, an appeal may be filed.
Eight women and four men in May awarded $843,313 in damages and interest, plus undetermined legal fees which could put the settlement close to $1 million.
Belanger left the company in 1995.
The harassment, he claimed, began with an unwelcome advance outside the workplace. A few days later, Trafecante told him he loved him and wanted to have sex with him, according to court papers.
The harassment increased with time. Trafecante allegedly began following him into the men's room, made sexual gestures in the company gym, and once grabbed his genitals, Belanger claimed.
Trafecante could not be reached for comment.
''I felt that this man was a predator and I was his prey,'' Belanger said.
After Trafecante was suspended in 1994, Belanger was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Memorial Hospital for a week, and did not return to work that summer.
Mike Barnicle
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