FBI Sexual Harassment Case Is Reported Settled : Civil rights: Two female O.C. agents will be paid $350,000. Bureau director reportedly hastened resolution.

SANTA ANA —  In an unusually swift resolution of a federal civil rights lawsuit, the FBI has agreed to pay nearly $350,000 to two female agents in Orange County who alleged that they were fondled and taunted by their supervisor, a lawyer for the women said Monday.

Under the settlement agreement, the bureau will pay $192,500 to Agent Heather Power-Anderson and $155,000 to her colleague, Boni Carr-Alduenda, in exchange for their dropping the lawsuit, said Irvine lawyer Christopher B. Mears.

As a condition of the settlement, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh will also issue a public statement within the next few weeks acknowledging the agreement and “reiterating the FBI’s commitment to the maintenance of a workplace free from all forms of discrimination and retaliation.”

Officials at FBI headquarters and at the U.S. Justice Department in Washington said they would have no comment Monday night.

In contrast to the handling of similar complaints in the past, which took months--even years--to resolve, the settlement comes a mere two months after the women sued the Department of Justice alleging that they were repeatedly harassed by Supervising Agent John Carpenter, a 20-year-veteran who worked in the agency’s Santa Ana office. Carpenter has denied the allegations.

The Times has learned that the FBI initiated proceedings to terminate Carpenter six weeks ago, and transferred him to the FBI’s Long Beach office.

Mears attributed the speedy resolution to the FBI director’s personal involvement in securing a negotiated resolution of the women’s complaints.

“While not carrying an admission of fault, the agreement clearly reflects the seriousness with which the FBI took these claims,” Mears said. “It represents a real commitment by the director’s office to see to it that the laws regarding discrimination have some teeth. He is a man of his word.”

Power-Anderson, 38, and Carr-Alduenda, 40, alleged in their lawsuit that Carpenter taunted them at work, grabbing them and making lewd remarks during several months of 1992.

Power-Anderson, of Mission Viejo, has been a special agent since 1984. Carr-Alduenda, a resident of Laguna Niguel, has served since 1988.

Power-Anderson was assigned to Carpenter’s squad, and said the supervisor massaged her shoulders. In one incident, she said he kissed her on the back of the neck while she was sitting at her desk. Another time, she alleged, Carpenter tore her dress when he forced his hand onto her upper thigh.

Carr-Alduenda alleged that Carpenter constantly grabbed her and commented several times about the size of her breasts. In the lawsuit, she said that when she returned from maternity leave in September, 1992, Carpenter said to her: “Maternity has been good to you. Your breasts are really big. Are you breast feeding? I wish I was your baby.”

The women also alleged that James Donckels, the resident agent-in-charge of the Santa Ana office, discouraged them from filing discrimination complaints with the federal equal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but advised them to put their complaints in writing so he could forward them to the Office of Professional Responsibility, an internal FBI unit.

The women said in their lawsuit that they were further taunted and intimidated by other FBI officials after they complained about Carpenter’s behavior.

During monthlong settlement negotiations, Mears said FBI officials acknowledged disciplining other agents linked to the investigation into the harassment charges, but they declined to elaborate.

Apart from the financial settlement, Power-Anderson will be given 250 hours of sick and administrative leave that she took to recover from stress induced by the alleged harassment, Mears said.

The women have also been promised that they will not be assigned to any agency or field office to which Carpenter is assigned, and that they will not be transferred in retaliation for their lawsuit, the lawyer said.

If the case had gone to trial, Mears said the women could have received no more than $300,000 under federal law.

But both Power-Anderson and Carr-Alduenda were “very glad it’s over. They didn’t want their claims ever to go this far,” Mears said. “It would not have gone this far if they were dealt with in good faith, but it took the direct involvement of the director’s office for the bureau to come to grips with their claims.”

Mears said Power-Anderson and Carr-Alduenda, both of whom have received commendations for their distinguished work, will continue to pursue their careers with the FBI even though they suffer “rude remarks and cold shoulder treatment from a number of their co-workers who feel they have violated the FBI’s code of silence.”

“With time, the attitudes will change and soften,” Mears said. “I think many of their fellow male agents have trouble with women asserting themselves. They simply have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century as it relates to the treatment of women in the workplace.”

Donckels, the agent in charge of the Santa Ana office, declined comment Monday.

The settlement is consistent with Freeh’s recently announced guidelines governing the conduct of FBI employees and emphasizing higher standards of ethical behavior.

In a directive to all FBI executives, Freeh said the guidelines are among policies he has sought to institute since becoming director six months ago.

“I have determined that we have been too tolerant of certain types of behavior,” he said, adding that he wants to “draw a bright line which should serve to put all employees on notice of my expectations.”

In December, 1993, the FBI settled a class-action lawsuit brought by FBI Agent Frank Buttino, who was fired in 1990 after his supervisors received an anonymous letter informing them that he is gay. While not admitting wrongdoing, the FBI agreed to adopt guidelines barring discrimination against homosexuals, and to hire a lesbian applicant who was rejected for a job in 1987, allegedly because of her sexual orientation.

The Orange County lawsuit was believed to be the first sexual harassment case filed by women still working as agents. But former Agent Suzane Doucette filed a similar lawsuit against the Justice Department in September, alleging she was sexually harassed by the head of the FBI’s Arizona office. Doucette said she was dismissed last year after filing her complaint, which is still pending.

Times staff writer Ronald Ostrow in Washington contributed to this report.