La Palma Intercommunity Hospital at 7901 Walker Street, La Palma, California.

Dr. Heilpern, the head of Emergency Services, is a sexual harasser. I am a medical doctor, and I worked for him at California Medical Center and at La Palma Intercommunity Hospital in the emergency departments. One day in the emergency department at California Medical Center he tore open the front-buttoned dress of one of the female clerks, exposing her panties to the entire emergency department. She was horrified, screamed, and tried to pull her dress back together to cover her panties. She turned bright red and kept saying to me over and over again, "He is so inappropriate! He is os inappropriate!" She was so distressed that she had to leave her work station in the middle of a busy emergency department. She sued Heilpern, and I was promptly called by his attorney and asked what had happened. Thereafter Heilpern gave me a raise and a lot of other benefits, I believe, in an attempt to keep me from telling the truth about the sexual assault. He settled the lawsuit shortly thereafter.

James Yoshioka was the CEO of both hospitals and was aware of Heilpern's incidents of sexual harassment.

That year Heilpern paid for our emergency department Holiday party, which we had at my home in Brentwood. At the party, I was bending over an ice chest to get a cold drink for a guest, when Dr. Heilpern came up behind me, placed his crotch against my buttocks, grabbed my hips with his hands, and began to pretend to perform a*** intercourse on me, laughing the entire time as all of my guests looked on mortified, including my significant other. I felt humiliated, and went downstairs and locked myself in my bedroom for the duration of my party.

After settling the lawsuit with the female clerk, Heilpern repeatedly tried to fire me, but always backed off because I had the support of my fellow doctors, and because I asked James Yoshioka, the CEO of both hospitals to prevent Heilpern from firing me in retaliation. On one occasion Yoshioka confided in me that, "You have really been sh** upon." In January of 1994, I lost my brother to a violent and traumatic injury. I informed Heilpern that I had to go home for the funeral, and that I needed a few days off. One hour before I went to the church for my brother's funeral, I was phoned at my parents" home by a colleague who informed that Heilpern had fired me.

I sued Heilpern for sexual harassment and wrongful termination, and Yoshioka for failing to intervene to stop the abuses, and we went to a jury trial. The judge refused to allow my significant other to testify about the sexual assault and battery against me at the Holiday party. Heilpern's attorney used the defense that I was an independent contractor, as opposed to an employee, and therefore the employment sexual harassment laws did not apply to me, despite the fact that the IRS had reclassified me as an employee. The jury felt that, based on this defense, that they were unable to award me anything. We interviewed the jury after their verdict, and they all said they believed me and wanted to award me damages, but they were unable to do so because of the independent contractor defense.