Berkeley – We know it has been a long time since we’ve written. A lot is happening at Pacifica Radio, and a lot is also happening in our own lives, which has made the labor involved in following Pacifica happenings so closely less viable. But we will keep the option open when there is significant news that otherwise would not be distributed. Before we begin, a few disclaimers. All of the information provided here is drawn from public court filings in the Alameda Superior Court. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty and allegations are just allegations until proven. However, we find it unconscionable that several members of KPFA’s Local Station Board were not aware of this lawsuit’s existence until last week. Board members should not have to monitor court records to discover litigation against their organization. And some of the issues regarding station response are significant whether the allegations are true, false or some of both.
Elected members of KPFA’s local station board were startled last week to discover that a lawsuit against KPFA and Pacifica had been pending since May of 2022 with no notification to them. The plaintiff is Francisco Torres De La Rosa, who described himself as a 54 year old man who is married with two children and has limited English fluency. Mr. Torres De La Rosa was employed as a maintenance worker at KPFA in Berkeley from 2015 to 2021. De La Rosa alleges that beginning in 2019, news co-director and 41 year KPFA employee Mark Mericle “repeatedly and forcibly grabbed his buttocks and laughed at him when he recoiled and expressed distress, followed him to the bathroom and blocked him inside of it, and stared and leered at him in a harassing way”. Torres De La Rosa alleges he complained to his female supervisor, who is unnamed in the complaint, but seems likely to be business manager Maria Negret, and the response he received was “Well, he’s gay”. Torres De La Rosa then alleges he elevated his complaint to the “general director”, who is unnamed in the complaint, but seems likely to be general manager Quincy McCoy, and was told he “had to get along with everybody”. When Torres De La Rosa alleges he pushed the complaint about sexual assault to Pacifica Human Resources (again unnamed in the complaint), there was no remedial action taken.
In late May of 2021, Torres De La Rosa filed a complaint with the Department of Fair Housing Employment. Within 20 days of that filing, he was relieved of all his work duties, fired and “barred from entering the station”. Pacifica claimed the reason for the discharge was an injury suffered at work (not clear if the injury happened at KPFA itself) which limited Torres De La Rosa’s physical ability to perform a maintenance job. The lawsuit against KPFA has 17 causes of action including retaliation, failure to lawfully accommodate disability, failure to prevent sexual assault in the workplace, sexual battery, discrimination for national origin, and wrongful termination. Unless settled, the lawsuit is currently scheduled for jury trial in December of 2023. You can read the entire complaint here.
The response filed by Mark Mericle and his attorneys is largely a technocratic exercise focusing on legal process, but there are a few affirmative statements. Mericle states in his 14th Affirmative Defense that to the extent the plaintiff suffered any emotional distress that it was related to a pre-existing psychological disorder. Mericle states in his 26th Affirmative Defense that the claims are barred because he does not have supervisory authority at KPFA. Mericle states in his 27th Affirmative Defense that the plaintiff “welcomed his conduct” and again his 33rd Affirmative defense that the plaintiff “consented to the alleged physical contact”. In his 31st Affirmative Defense, Mericle states that his actions are protected by the free speech provisions of the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In his 37th Affirmative Defense, Mericle cites a collective bargaining agreement that requires arbitration. It isn’t clear if the reference is to KPFA’s bargaining agreement with CWA 9415 or some other bargaining agreement. Mericle has been a contractual vice-president at CWA 9415 for 10 of the last 16 years. You can read Mericle’s entire answer to the complaint here.
What can be determined at this time is that individuals in the position of “female supervisor” and “general director” of KPFA from 2019-2021 did not act according to the instructions in Pacifica’s personnel handbook when confronted with a complaint of sexual battery at work. The Pacifica stations were besieged with sexual harassment complaints in the early 2000’s and a great deal of work was done at the national level to rewrite internal policies and personnel handbooks and provide sexual harassment training to all employees. It is disappointing to see so little progress after all that additional work and training. The concealment of this lawsuit from the KPFA local station board for 9 months was inappropriate. Board members cannot perform their duties in the dark.
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Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica’s storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin’s incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-sponsored radio.