Spanked Calif. woman gets $1.7 mln in lawsuit

FRESNO, Calif., Apr 29 (Reuters) A California woman who sued her former employer after she was spanked on the job was awarded 1.7 million dollars in damages and compensation.

Janet Orlando, 53, said she was embarrassed, permanently scarred and mentally anguished by the fraternity-like atmosphere and sales-building exercises at Alarm One Inc, which included paddling if an employee was late for a sales meeting.

The jury initially awarded her 500,000 dollars in compensatory damages for lost wages, emotional distress and medical expenses.

After further deliberation, the jury added another 1.2 million dollars in punitive damages, lawyers said yesterday.

''Nationwide this will make for a safer workplace, help ensure less harassment in the workplace,'' Orlando's attorney Nicholas ''Butch'' Wagner told Reuters.

''The most compelling evidence is that they made a middle-aged woman go in front of mostly male co-workers between the ages of 18 and 24, bend over, put her hands on the wall and spanked her with a metal sign.'' The swatting incidents occurred in 2003 and stopped as soon as executives at company headquarters in Anaheim, California, received a complaint, Alarm One Chief Operating Officer Patrick Smith said.

Sales people at the home security company's Fresno office, which has since closed, developed the unorthodox practices themselves.

Two original plaintiffs who sued over the practice settled out of court, defense attorney K Poncho Baker said.

The company did not return calls seeking reaction after the jury announced its verdict.

REUTERS SHB BST0917