A state appeals court on Monday overturned a $10 million sexual harassment verdict citing a Los Angeles trial judge’s missteps in admitting evidence and his “extreme and bizarre” comments about race and gender.
The Second District Court of Appeal District Eight said Superior Court Judge Robert Draper should not have allowed the plaintiff, a Los Angeles Community College District employee, to introduce 20-year-old newspaper articles about her alleged harasser’s expunged misdemeanor convictions. Nor, the unanimous three-justice panel wrote, should a student have testified about her harassment complaint against a different district administrator.