More UC Berkeley sex-harassment cases revealed

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The sex-harassment scandal at UC Berkeley grew bigger today, with news that 19 university employees violated campus policies, much more than what was previously known.

Also today, a woman suing the former UC Berkeley Law School dean for unwanted touching spoke out. She says the new cases are proof that the university is doing a poor job addressing the issue.

The woman, Tyann Sorrell, served as the executive assistant for former dean Sujit Choudhry, who resigned last month after she accused him of repeatedly touching her against her will. Now, she says UC Berkeley deliberately kept many of these new cases quiet.

Sorrell says she's had enough, and that's she's saddened by all the sex-harassment cases that are only now coming to light, tarnishing the university's reputation.

at a news conference at the Oakland office of her attorney, Sorrell said she's "just heartbroken that more people have gone through this. The numbers, in the little amount of time, makes me wonder what happened before, what's happening now."

Late Tuesday, UC Berkeley released more than 400 pages of documents about 19 faculty or staff members who the campus says violated sexual harassment policies in the past seven years. Eleven of these cases had never before been made public. Of these cases, seven employees resigned or were fired.

Seven of the alleged victims were students.

One of the new cases involved assistant diving coach Todd Mulzet, who was accused of making sexual comments to a male co-worker and offering him $300 for oral sex. Mulzet denied the allegations. His pay was cut, but he kept his job.

But Howard D'Abrera, an adjunct statistics professor, resigned after being accused of inviting a student over e-mail to Hawaii for a "dirty smoke-filled weekend of unadulterated guilty pleasure and sins."

Other previously unreported cases involve a custodian who allegedly watched a female student showering, a massage therapist accused of sexually assaulting a female student during a massage and a painter reportedly caught having sex in a vacant campus apartment.

Last month, Sorrell filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the university and Choudhry. She was his executive assistant. His pay was docked by 10 percent, and he resigned as dean -- but still remains on the faculty.

Sorrell said she received an apology letter from Choudhry, several months after he had been directed by university officials to write her.

"It didn't feel sincere."

All this is in addition to the cases involving former astronomy professor Geoffrey Marcy, former vice chancellor Graham Fleming and Yann Hufnagel, an assistant Cal basketball coach that the university wants fired.

Critics say the campus discipline is uneven.

"The problem is that once there is a finding of sexual harassment, they fail to take sufficient action to discipline the harasser," said Winer, Sorrell's attorney.

in a statement, Choudhry's attorney Naomijee Rustom said, "He is confident that he will be vindicated in court.  He should be judged on the basis of his conduct, not on that of others accused of sexual harassment."

UC Berkeley officials say they've named an interim law school dean and a point person to respond to sexual harassment. Both are women. There is also now a chancellor's committee to deal with the issue.