Former Atascadero State Hospital nurse says supervisor stalked, harassed her

A former Atascadero State Hospital nurse who claims she was stalked, harassed and placed in dangerous situations after complaining about a male supervisor’s on-the-job sexist behavior testified in San Luis Obispo Superior Court Monday that her former co-worker began stalking her in the hospital parking lot in order to intimidate her.

Janet Ochotorena, 53, who worked as a registered nurse at the facility between 2008 and 2013, said she continues to suffer from anxiety, memory problems and nightmares from harassment and retaliation. Ochotorena is suing the California Department of State Hospitals and the employee, Alfred Sweet, and she is seeking unspecified damages for mental, physical and emotional stress, as well as reimbursement of attorney costs.

According to her lawsuit filed in Superior Court, Ochotorena complained to her direct supervisor about sexist remarks and behavior by Sweet, a psychiatric technician assigned to her unit as the shift lead, but no action was taken by her supervisors. Shortly after the complaints, she claims, Sweet retaliated against her by leaving her alone with patients or rescheduled her breaks so that she was left alone in dangerous situations, such as a shower stall or hallway, contrary to hospital policy.

Atascadero State Hospital treats male patients that have been accused of a violent crime but are deemed not mentally fit to stand trial.

Previously, another male psychiatric technician testified that he witnessed and was told by Ochotorena that she was left alone with patients when Sweet was the unit’s shift lead, and he agreed with her attorney’s statement that Sweet’s “sexist attitude toward women created safety issues for female staffers.”

Those concerns prompted the technician to report Sweet’s behavior to his own supervisor.

Ochotorena testified Monday that on one occasion, she was in a room with Sweet and other male staff members when Sweet began dancing suggestively, saying in front of the other employees that his favorite song was “Pussy Poppin’ ” by rapper Ludacris.

“I was really embarrassed, and I think the other men were embarrassed, too,” Ochotorena said.

She testified that it was common for Sweet to address female employees as his “favorite honey.” In another incident, she said, Sweet answered a telephone call from a woman asking to speak to her husband, also a technician, who was in the middle of a work shift at the time.

“(Sweet) said on the phone, ‘You know, I can do it better than your husband,’ ” recalled Ochotorena, adding that she later told the husband of the remarks.

She filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that went nowhere, according to the lawsuit.

After Ochotorena told her direct supervisor of the incidents through a number of emails, Ochotorena accuses Sweet’s behavior of becoming threatening.

One day, as she arrived at work in her car, Sweet pulled up very closely beside her car, got out and stared at her for a few minutes before walking into the facility, Ochotorena testified. After a second similar incident, she simply locked herself in her car until Sweet walked inside the hospital first. When she entered minutes later, Sweet was waiting for her, she said.

“He just comes out of nowhere, comes in right after me, walks by me and kinda bumps my arm,” she said. “I thought, ‘I can do this. Just be brave.’ But he’s there looking at me, and I just felt very intimidated.”

She filed a report with the state Department of Police Services, which provides law enforcement at the hospital. That report also went nowhere, she says.

“I felt like I was abandoned by the hospital,” Ochotorena said. “I thought Al Sweet was capable of just about anything.”

She left the hospital and later unsuccessfully filed for disability retirement. She filed a tort claim with the Victim’s Compensation Board in January 2014, which was denied. She then filed the lawsuit.

During cross-examination Monday, Deputy Attorney General Elisabeth Frater, representing the Department of State Hospitals and Sweet, asked Ochotorena why she never pulled her personal electronic safety alarm if she felt she was in danger after being left alone in a shower stall with a patient.

“Activating your alarm, that gives people a lot of time to hurt you,” Ochotorena replied. “I just thought, ‘I need to get out of this shower,’ not activate my alarm.”

Frater attempted to show the jury that Ochotorena exaggerated the danger in her version of the shower incident, recounting previous statements she allegedly made to a doctor, claiming the patient was “all over (her)” in the shower. Ochotorena said she didn’t recall making those statements.

The defense is expected to call witnesses for the remainder of the week before both sides present closing arguments, tentatively scheduled for next week in the Paso Robles Superior Courthouse.

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 7:17 PM with the headline "Former Atascadero State Hospital nurse says supervisor stalked, harassed her."