Lawsuit alleges sexual coercion by city employee

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF ^ | Saturday, November 1, 2003 | By Claire Osborn

[Arrowhead1952]

Woman contends supervisor of community service workers demanded sex in exchange for falsifying hours

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By Claire Osborn

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Saturday, November 1, 2003

A woman has sued the City of Austin, contending that it was negligent in employing a park worker who is accused of coercing sex from young women assigned to work in the parks as community service for misdemeanor criminal convictions.

The former employee, Freddie Urias, faces criminal charges of sexual assault, official oppression and tampering with a government record. His case is in pretrial hearings.

According to the lawsuit filed in state District Court, Urias sexually assaulted the woman in a shed at the Austin Nature Center on Oct. 31, 2001. The city previously had received complaints about his behavior but failed to do anything about it, the lawsuit says.

City legal officials had not yet received the lawsuit and could not comment about it, a city attorney said Friday.

The woman, listed in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, had gone to the Austin Nature Center to perform community service. Urias told her he would supervise her work and then drove her to a remote fenced area at the center, the lawsuit says.

He locked both of them inside a gate and told her he had reduced the hours of community service work required of other young women who had shown him their breasts, the lawsuit says.

The woman became frightened, according to the lawsuit, and then Urias took her into a shed and refused to release her. He requested sex and showed her the paperwork that he proposed to use to falsify her hours, the lawsuit says.

"The plaintiff felt trapped in the enclosed area, was intimidated by the apparent authority of her tormentor and feared for her physical safety," the lawsuit says.

The woman contends that Urias refused to release her after she declined his requests and told her she would never get out unless she complied. He then sexually assaulted her, according to the lawsuit. Urias, who also is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment Friday.

He was in charge of trail maintenance and cleanup for 11 years for the Austin Parks and Recreation Department until he resigned after police began investigating him in December 2001.

He was accused in 2001 of soliciting sexual contact from teenage girls assigned by courts to do community service. He later was accused of propositioning two high school girls in April 2003.

[Arrowhead1952]

This idiot needs to be put in jail with a Big Bubba as cell mate.

[Paleo Conservative]

This give a whole new meaning to the term "community service".

[Balto_Boy]

He locked both of them inside a gate and told her he had reduced the hours of community service work required of other young women who had shown him their breasts, the lawsuit says.

Wait a minute! I thought women were able to get away with putting in less work than men because of feminism. What does this have to do with feminism?