Los Angeles- from www.bhcourier.com – A woman who once worked for Playboy TV was awarded upwards of $200,000 by a Los Angeles jury, which concluded that a male colleague sexually harassed her and the company did not do enough to stop it.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated for nearly 1 1/2 days before finding in favor of Julie Crouch and against Charles Dorn and Playboy Entertainment Group Inc.

The panel awarded Crouch $182,500 and also ordered Dorn to pay her an additional $10,000 in punitive damages.

But the jury rejected Crouch’s claims of disability harassment and exonerated Chere Johnson, who supervised Crouch and Dorn before moving up the management ladder.

Crouch testified she was tormented by Dorn often during the 5 1/2 years the two worked as master control operators. She maintained that Dorn insisted men were superior to women; that he had called her an epithet in German; and that he berated her so aggressively once that she was inadvertently spit on.

She said he also used derogatory language frequently, including the “F’ word.

Crouch’s lawyer, Mark J. Valencia, had asked for a seven-figure award, but said after the verdict he was satisfied with the amount settled upon by the jury.

“We got a sexual harassment verdict against Playboy, and that’s huge,’ Valencia said, adding that he will ask Judge Conrad A. Aragon for an award of attorneys’ fees on behalf of his client.

As a result of her experience at Playboy, Couch suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, Valencia said.

Attorneys for Playboy declined to comment on the verdict.

However, during trial, Playboy attorney Jason Mills scoffed at Crouch’s PTSD claim and said her entire story was a “revision of history.’

Mills said Crouch came forward with many of her complaints 10 months after she was laid off in March 2008, when her unit of Playboy was bought out by Broadcast Facilities Inc., which has since been renamed Encompass Digital Media Inc.

Crouch, a married mother of four, joined Playboy in September 2002.

Her job was to monitor the Playboy cable channels to make sure blackouts did not occur during broadcasts.

Crouch and Johnson knew each other from a previous job, and Johnson supervised her and Dorn for a while before moving up in management at Playboy, Valencia said.

Dorn frequently used the “F’ word if he was mad about something and his attitude toward Crouch took a dramatic turn for the worse in late 2003, when she received an employee recognition award that he had been given the year before and thought he was entitled to again, according to Valencia.

When Crouch returned to the control room, Dorn was throwing things around and kicking trash cans, all the while repeating the “F’ word, Valencia said.

After almost a year of alleged harassment, Crouch wrote a letter to Johnson in September 2004, airing her grievances concerning Dorn, Valencia said.

Although an internal investigation into Crouch’s complaints brought an apology from Dorn, he later began harassing her again, using such terms as “slut,’ “whore’ and “prostitute,’ Valencia said.

Crouch, who had complications from breast implants and also underwent back surgery, was chastised by Dorn for her leaves of absence, Valencia said.

Dorn sarcastically asked her when she was going on her next vacation, according to the attorney.

Villa testified Dorn was reprimanded even though Crouch did not want him to be warned or fired.

She also said Crouch was given all the time off she requested for medical leave.

Crouch is now a master control operator for the Outdoor Channel.