Boss Accused of Extreme Sexual Harassment

WASHINGTON (CN) - Three women claim in court that their boss's sexual harassment was so extreme he trapped one of them in a closet and forced her to watch homemade pornography while grabbing her breast and masturbating.

Maria Rivas, Sandra Ventura and Carmen Sagastizado, school janitors, sued UGL Services Limited in Superior Court, claiming it took no action against their supervisor, Felix Miranda, who threatened them with long hours and lower pay if they refused his sexual demands.

Miranda is not named as a defendant in the complaint, though he is named. The only defendant is UGL Services, of Portland, Maine.

The women claim Miranda routinely exposed himself and sexually assaulted them throughout 2010 and 2011, while he was their immediate supervisor at St. Agnes School.

"On numerous occasions in 2010 and 2011, Miranda asked the plaintiffs for sexual favors, touched them in sexual ways, exposed himself, and generally humiliated the plaintiffs with exposure to gratuitous sexual acts while taunting and threatening them and insisting there was no course of action to plaintiffs because of his position, and his ability to contact any of the plaintiffs no matter their location," the complaint states. "He openly referred to the plaintiffs as his 'lovers' informing Ms. Sagastizado that 'none of them (the plaintiffs) made his dick hard.'"

Ventura claims that Miranda trapped her in a cleaning closet three times: "Miranda would willfully detain Ms. Ventura without her consent leaning on the door with his entire body and thereby obstructing her departure. When she demanded to leave, he refused. Instead he forced her to watch pornographic CD's which depicted a nude Felix Miranda having sex with three women, while contemporaneously grabbing Ms. Ventura's breast and exposing his genitals and masturbating," according to the complaint.

She says he also ordered him to "stroke his penis."

Rivas says Miranda entered bathrooms she was cleaning and demanded "that she look at his 'chirikin,' the term he used to refer to his penis."

Sagastizado claims Miranda forced her to show him her underwear and genitalia in the school cafeteria.

The women say they reported Miranda's behavior to Johnny Rivera, an assistant manager of the school and an employee of UGL. Ventura claims that Rivera told her "that he believed her allegations, as other female employees had made similar complaints of sexual misconduct by Mr. Miranda. He directly said, 'Maria [Rivas] has told me what he did to her.' He stated he did not like Mr. Miranda, but urged her not to file a report with Human Resources," the complaint states.

When Miranda found out about the complaints, it exacerbated the problem, according to the complaint: "He pointed his finger in her face and screamed at her never to talk to 'Johnny' again."

Ventura says she was fired because of her complaints. The other plaintiffs say they still work for UGL, work in constant fear of Miranda, who was transferred to another school, but "continues to make visits to the St. Agnes School, frightening Ms. Ventura and Ms. Sagastizado, as they never know when he will appear."

They claim that Miranda "appears on the campus unexpectedly and the plaintiffs are forced to run and hide."

The seek punitive damages for sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, battery and infliction of emotional distress.

They are represented by Glenn Wainer of Falls Church, Va.

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