Nursing Official Files Sexual Harassment Suit

A nursing administrator at Howard University Hospital alleged in a lawsuit yesterday that Howard's chairman of emergency medicine routinely subjected her to "unwelcome touching, sexual demands, vulgar and sexually explicit remarks" and other harassment last year after both were hired to improve patient care in the hospital's emergency room.

In a complaint filed in D.C. Superior Court, Evelyn White, 52, who was hired in March 2007 as Howard's director of emergency and trauma care, accuses physician Geoffrey Mountvarner, 40, of repeated sexual harassment, including unzipping his pants in her office and demanding that she "service him sexually."

Mountvarner became chairman of emergency medicine two months after White was hired, and the two worked together to reorganize Howard's emergency department, the lawsuit states. The overhaul stemmed partly from the highly publicized death of retired New York Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum, who was treated at Howard after he was mugged in January 2006.

The lawsuit, seeking $4 million in damages, also names the hospital as a defendant. The suit claims that officials retaliated against White by transferring her to a less desirable job in disaster training after she filed a sexual-harassment complaint with Howard's human-resources director in October. That complaint has not been resolved by the hospital, said Debra S. Katz, one of White's attorneys.

Mountvarner, who remains in his post at Howard, would not comment on the lawsuit yesterday, saying he was unaware of it. Hospital spokeswoman Jennifer James-Pryor said she could not discuss the suit because she had not seen the filing.

"As a rule of thumb, we don't comment on lawsuits that are in litigation," she said.

The lawsuit also accuses Mountvarner of defamation, saying he spread false rumors about White, damaging her personal and professional reputations, after she resisted his alleged advances and complained of sexual harassment.

In a report issued six months after Rosenbaum's death, the D.C. inspector general's office criticized District police and paramedics for their lax handling of the case and faulted Howard's emergency room for "apathy, indifference and complacency" that "undermined the effective, efficient and high-quality delivery" of medical care.

According to the suit, White has more than 31 years of nursing and nurse-management experience and was hired by the hospital to help correct "the deviations . . . highlighted in the inspector general's report, and those specifically identified concerning Mr. Rosenbaum's death."

After Mountvarner was hired in May to supervise "all emergency room physicians and the reorganization of the emergency department to improve patient care," the lawsuit states, he and White initially "enjoyed a cordial and professional relationship, built upon their prior experience working together" at Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton.

Before becoming chairman of emergency medicine, Mountvarner had worked part-time as an emergency room physician at Howard.

When White started at Howard, "nurses warned her to be careful around Dr. Mountvarner because he had engaged in sexual misconduct and harassment of female staff," the suit states. White initially "discounted these reports, but within approximately a month of assuming the position of chair of emergency medicine, Dr. Mountvarner began to subject Ms. White to unwelcome sexual comments, propositions and touching."

In June, Mountvarner allegedly summoned White to his office and "demanded that she show him her breasts." Shortly afterward, the lawsuit states, White received flowers with a note that read: "You are doing a remarkable job, keep up the good work, continue to move mountains -- BD."

"Several days later," according to the lawsuit, "Dr. Mountvarner admitted that he had sent the flowers and that he liked to be called 'Big Daddy' by the female staff."

He also allegedly made "lewd and sexual remarks" in several "late-night telephone calls to Ms. White at home" and "routinely made derogatory, demeaning and sexually objectifying comments to Ms. White about other women."

After complaining informally to hospital officials several times with no results, the lawsuit states, White filed a formal written harassment complaint Oct. 17.