Oakland must pay $2.6M over sexual harassment claims

A jury has awarded $2.6 million in damages to an East Oakland woman who says she was sexually harassed for years by her male supervisor, the chief of custodians at the city’s senior centers, and that city officials did nothing to protect her or punish her harasser.

After a two-week trial, the Alameda County Superior Court jury found the city responsible Monday for failing to protect Patricia Toscano and for retaliating against her after she complained. Her lawyers said the man she accused of harassing her, Frank Knight, still has his supervisor’s job and sat with the city’s attorneys during the trial.

“I hope that the verdict will send a clear message to the city that they need to believe people who come forward rather than ignoring us,” Toscano said in a statement released by her lawyers. “Someone needs to take a hard look at how they are running things.”

Nina Erlich-Williams, a spokesperson for the city attorney’s office, said the city was disappointed by the verdict and was considering its options, which would include an appeal.

During the trial, Oakland took the position that Toscano had fabricated most of her claims against Knight, said Sharon Vinick, a lawyer for Toscano.

Toscano, who had been a city employee for about a decade, was working as an administrative assistant at the East Oakland Senior Center in early 2016 when she said she was first harassed by Knight, supervisor of custodians at the city’s four senior centers. She said Knight would brush against her while walking down the hall, tried to kiss her several times, commented on her body and clothing, and spent long periods in a chair facing her office and making sexual comments.

The city took no action until summer 2018 after an anonymous employee made further complaints, Vinick said. She said Oakland’s investigator recommended disciplinary action and some policy changes, but the city took no action, while promoting Knight’s supervisor.

Instead, Vinick said, Toscano was treated harshly, had to transfer to another senior center and resigned in January 2022. After undergoing therapy, she went back to college and is scheduled to graduate from UC Berkeley this weekend, Vinick said. Her son, Juan Toscano-Anderson, a former basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, attended the trial.

Toscano had grown up in East Oakland, and “working at the senior center was a dream for her. She loved that job,” Vinick said. She said several residents of the center testified in favor of Toscano.