A Ukrainian woman has won a $125,000 jury award in a sexual harassment case that focused on whether her former boss at a California employment agency coerced her into having sex by taking advantage of her visa status.

Alla Sazonova worked for Security Marketing Concepts of Newport Beach under an H-1B visa, which allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialized occupations. She claimed her boss, Clifford Crane, threatened not to extend her visa if she did not submit to his sexual advances.

“[E]xploiting the vulnerability of her position,” Crane “use[d] his power and influence over Ms. Sazonova, her job and her [H-1B] visa as instrumentalities by which to coerce and pressure her sexual submission,” she alleged in a complaint filed in October 2009.

Sazonova, who met Crane through a dating service, lived for a time rent-free in an apartment owned by him and even agreed at one point to marry him. He claimed she initiated a romantic relationship and duped him into believing that “she cared for him enough to marry him for love.”

“The truth is that Sazonova viewed Crane as no more than a vehicle that would gain her entrance to the United States of America and access to wealth,” he said in a countersuit for fraud and deceit.

But in an 11-1 verdict, an Orange County Superior Court jury last week awarded Sazonova $60,000 for emotional distress and $65,000 for lost income, finding Crane sexually harassed her and wrongfully terminated her in April 2009 — three days after she allegedly refused to have sex with him at an overnight event in San Diego.

Even though the jury did not award any punitive damages, Sazonova attorney Gregory D. Helmer (Helmer Friedman, Venice, Calif.) was “very pleased” with the verdict. “In our opinion, they made a very fair, reasoned award,” he tells On Point.

Crane said he fired Sazonova after discovering she was using her office computer to converse with other men in chatrooms. But under California law, the jury could find him liable if his romantic relationship with her was a "motivating factor" in her termination.

"We knew we had a big problem" because of the strict liability standard, Crane attorney Joseph C. Rosenblit of San Juan Capistrano says. "But we did a pretty good job on damages control."

Crane owns Apollo Security Systems, whose products include electronic card readers, and Security Marketing Concepts, which supplies employees to security firms. According to trial testimony, he used Eastern European dating services to meet women, obtain work visas on their behalf, and bring them to the U.S. to work for his companies.

Sazonova left Ukraine to work for Security Marketing as a technical writer in October 2006 after Crane allegedly assured her that he was “recruiting her solely for purposes of employment.” She said she resisted his advances until October 2007 when, “[ex]hausted and worn down by his persistence,” she told him she would consider having sex with him.

“Ms. Sazonova ruminated over whether to refuse but was fearful of the resulting consequences to her job, her visa and her general well being,” the suit said.

As far as Crane's marriage proposal, Sazonova claimed she only accepted it because her visa, which was valid for three years, was running out and he told her “she would not have to worry about her visa if she agreed to marry him.”

In his counterclaim, Crane said Sazonova told him in January 2007 that “she wanted their relationship to be more than friends” and that she repeatedly expressed “terms of endearment” to him. “Sazonova was well versed in techniques for coaxing men into desiring her and for getting men to give her money and gifts,” he alleged.

Superior Court Judge Gregory H. Lewis dismissed the counterclaim in March, agreeing with Sazonova that it was barred under California's anti-heart balm statute as an action for seduction.

An anti-fraud website identified Sazonova in December 2006 as a "scammer" who sent seductive, pre-written letters to men she met through online dating services. "I want to see in my future husband a good husband, a perfect love, a caring father to our future children," she said in a letter attributed to her on the site.

"The defense brought [the website] to the attention of the judge, who promptly excluded any reference to it," Helmer says.

Referring to the exploitation of overseas workers with temporary visas, Helmer believes the case presented an “important issue that has been flying under the radar.” While the jury's award may seem modest, he noted that he would be filing a motion for attorney fees.

By Matthew Heller
12/27/10