The Library of Congress will pay $250,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by an employee against a top law librarian.
Theresa Papademetriou alleged that the now-retired chief of the Law Library, Rubens Medina, sexually harassed female employees over 20 years through inappropriate touching and sexual comments.
The settlement was formally accepted by the U.S. District Court for D.C. on Thursday.
The agreement says it is not an admission of guilt and was offered “solely for the purposes of compromising disputed claims without further legal proceedings and avoiding the risks and expenses of litigation.”
In court documents, Papademetriou alleges that Medina engaged in “persistent harassment of female employees.”
Papademetriou worked as a senior foreign law specialist in the Western Law Division. She had worked at the library since 1982 and filed the lawsuit in August 2009.
Papademetriou claims Medina harassed at least seven women and that library officials “perpetuated the hostile working environment” by doing nothing when confronted with allegations about Medina’s conduct.
In one instance, the complaint alleges, Medina “caressed” Papademetriou’s face “in a sexual way,” after having stared at her “as if he lusted sex.”
The suit claims that Medina once told a female staffer that he had “tasted breast milk.”
He is also alleged to have caressed other women, made comments about female employees’ bodies and asked to use a massage device on a staff member.
The library didn’t try to stop his behavior, even as Medina “escalated his harassment” in 2006 or 2007, the suit claims.
The complaint says the library conducted an investigation into the alleged sexual harassment in spring 2008 and found that Medina had acted inappropriately toward female employees, but did not discipline him.
Neither Papademetriou’s attorney nor Library of Congress officials could be reached for comment late Thursday afternoon.
