• 23
  • August
    2010

The highest library in the land, the United States Library of Congress, agreed to pay out $250,000 to Theresa Papademetriou earlier this month following a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the longtime employee last August. In the suit, Papademetriou accused Dr. Rubens Medina, former senior librarian, of "persistent harassment of female employees," including verbal abuse and inappropriate touching.

She said that Medina had harassed at least seven women, to her knowledge, and that library officials did nothing to prevent the abuse or ease the hostile work environment, essentially ignoring complaints by library staff. With Medina's harassment of coworkers increasing throughout 2006 and 2007, complaints from female staff members increased as well.

Papademetriou claims that library officials finally investigated Medina in 2008 and found that Medina had, indeed, behaved in an inappropriate manner towards female coworkers. However, Library of Congress officials failed to discipline him. In 2009, Papademetriou had had enough and filed the sexual harassment lawsuit in DC District Court.

The lawsuit was settled in early August.

As is usual in employment law cases, Library of Congress officials were quick to point out that the $250,000 settlement was not an admission of guilt. As such, even with the settlement, Medina seems to have again escaped any sort of lasting stain on his career.

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