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Show Health director charged with sexual harassment By JUDY JENSEN FARMINGTON-Davis County Health Director Enrico A. Leopardi, Davis County and County Personnel Person-nel Director G. Stephen Baker have been named in a SI million sexual harassment suit filed Friday in U.S District court by former county secretary sec-retary Julie Vicknair. The suit alleges that Dr. Leopardi committed "sexual advances. advan-ces. ..unwanted touching of a sexual nature. ..and suggestions that clothing cloth-ing be worn which would result in a more appealing image of a sexual nature." According to her attorney, Gerry D'Elia, when Ms. Vicknair brought the matter to the attention of Personnel Per-sonnel Director Baker, she was demoted de-moted from the position of executive execu-tive secretary to "a dock worker who was expected to load cheese on a truck." Mr. D'Elia sent a letter to the county in March listing the charges and demanding a response. "Gerald Hess wrote me a letter that basically did not approach the issue and denied de-nied the charges,"said D'Elia. He then filed for a "right to serve" letter let-ter from the Department of Justice. When the 90 day waiting period expired, ex-pired, D'Elia prepared complaints against Dr. Leopardi, the county and Mr. Baker. The defendents now have 20 days to respond to the complaints after which preparations for trial will begin. Mr. D'Elia expects the entire process to take several months before the case is brought to trial. Commissioner Harold Tippetts said he was "disappointed and flabbergasted over the charges and I don't think there is any basis of fact for them. We were aware of the allegations al-legations earlier and it came as a surprise that further action was taken. ta-ken. We thought the matter had been resolved. We'll do everything we can to defend the good doctor. He has had an impeccable image. I have every confidence in Dr. Leopardi, Leop-ardi, "he said. According to D'Elia the main thrust of the suit is "the retaliation from Baker. When Julie showed up for work in high heels and was told to load a truck with cheese, she went to Baker and told him there had obviously been a mistake. He told her 'if they load cheese, you load cheese'. D'Elia said it was. after this confrontation that Julie quit her job and hired an attorney . |