Ex-Boss Demanded Sex, D.C. Parks and Recreation Workers Say

A spokeswoman for the District's Attorney General's Office, which is representing the Parks and Recreation Department, also would not comment.

Flowers and other city officials declined to discuss the allegations or say why Thompson left the agency, citing possible litigation and the confidentiality of personnel matters.

Allegations about Thompson were raised in April with the council's Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation. Deborrah E. Jackson, an officer with the union representing non-management employees, said in an interview that she started hearing concerns about Thompson in 2001 and 2002 after the agency began hiring former welfare recipients, mostly women, for jobs that offered temporary work experience or "term" employment that could be renewed every 13 months.

In a memorandum to council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), chairwoman of the panel, Jackson said there had been at least three sexual harassment allegations against Thompson. She wrote that Albert and another official, Neil Stanley, failed to heed the women's complaints.

"Neither of these administrators conducted in-house investigations," Jackson, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2741, told Patterson.

Albert and Stanley, however, said they took the allegations very seriously and investigated them.

"If the findings warranted it, the matter was referred to the Office of Human Rights," said Albert, who couldn't recall the specifics of any case. Albert left the agency in 2004 after three years to become a deputy mayor. He recently quit to run an education management company.

"Maybe someone didn't like the results, but it's not correct to say we didn't do anything about it," said Stanley, the agency's former general counsel who took over as interim director when Albert left. He is now a deputy director at the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

Since January 2001, according to the Office of Human Rights, only one sexual harassment complaint -- Byrd's -- has been filed against the Department of Parks and Recreation. In the past three years, the office has received a total of 20 sexual harassment complaints from all District agencies.

Patterson said she called the Parks and Recreation Department twice about the sexual harassment allegations and about separate allegations that Thompson had brought a gun to work and threatened employees. She said that by the second call, Thompson was on administrative leave. He was dropped from the city payroll Aug. 19.

Byrd, Burns and Gaskins said they were thrilled to be hired as maintenance workers, assigned to pick up trash, rake leaves and clean recreation centers. The job paid only $6.15 to start. But it was their first steady employment, and the hours, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., gave them time with their children.

Byrd alleged that her problems with Thompson began in 2002, when Thompson ordered her to pull up her shirt if she wanted to keep her job. She complied, she said, and was transferred that day from field work to the Half Street office. She answered phones, made calls -- and endured what she said in her council committee testimony was nearly three years of escalating sexual demands.