Man Wins Sexual Harassment Suit

The Peace Corps has settled a lawsuit by a former worker who claimed his female boss sexually harassed him - grabbing and kissing him and vowing they would have an affair.

The Peace Corps will pay Raymond W. Millikin Jr., 55, of Vienna, Va., $250,000, said Millikin’s lawyer, Gary Howard Simpson. He said he believes it to be the largest payment by the federal government to a man accusing his female boss of harassment.

“I think the government did something responsible,” Simpson said Wednesday. “They’re saying they’re not going to draw a line between males and females and this kind of conduct perpetrated by either gender is not going to be tolerated.

Millikin, who had worked for the government for 30 years, resigned from the Peace Corps in mid-July as part of the settlement.

He accused his former boss, then-Inspector General Deborah Hold Kirk, of making numerous sexual advances despite his continued protestations that he was married and was not interested in an affair.

“She was demanding sexual favors, he refused and as a result of that she was starting to take away his job duties and responsibility,” Simpson said.

Kirk resigned from the Peace Corps this spring. She was not named as a defendant in the suit, though her lawyer criticized the settlement.