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

Burns, who had been hoping for a permanent job, was let go after her term employment ended.

"When I got terminated," she said, "I called Mr. Albert. He never called me back."

Albert recalled getting "one or two complaints" about Thompson. "We followed up on it immediately," he said.

Thompson was still the maintenance chief in 2004 when Gaskins, who was hired in 2003, alleges that he started making sexual demands. By then, she was a term employee with a salary of $12.95 an hour, and she said she agreed to his demands after he threatened to fire her.

"He was my boss," said Gaskins, now 25. "I pretty much had to do what he said."

But a few months later, when she began refusing, she said, Thompson handed her a termination letter, effective March 31 last year.

Johnnie Richardson, a work leader, said she heard complaints about Thompson from Gaskins and Byrd but didn't report him because she didn't believe the allegations.

Byrd returned to the Half Street office after Thompson was gone. Co-workers, she said, "have been horrible to me," and last month she was reassigned to another office with less convenient hours. She said she hopes her complaint will result in job training, a financial settlement and "someone taking responsibility."

Recently, Byrd said, she was among the employees summoned to a training session on how to recognize and prevent sexual harassment. The instructions, she said, "are four years too late."

Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.