Larry Michels, president of Santa Cruz Operation Inc, has been charged with sexual harassment in a civil lawsuit filed by three former executive secretaries of the company in Santa Cruz County’s Superior Court: the suit, subject of a lengthy and embarassingly explicit story in the San Jose Mercury News last week, charges that Michels repeatedly groped, propositioned and forcibly kissed the three women, all mature adults, at work; Michels, who denied the allegations, told the newspaper he intends fighting the suit in court rather than settling privately; in fending off the charges, the paper quoted Michels as saying Did it say I raped anybody? Did it say I pinned anybody down? – when the Merc asked Michels to reply to accusations of hugging and kissing two of the women against their will during business hours, Michels, it said, replied, How serious a crime is that? Observers say that in today’s social climate both the charges and story could have a negative impact on Santa Cruz.
