SAN DIEGO - Jurors considering the case of four firefighters, who claim they were sexually harassed after being ordered to participate in last year's gay pride parade, failed to reach a verdict Wednesday in their first day of deliberations in the civil case.
In his closing argument on Tuesday, plaintiffs' attorney Charles Limandri said firefighters John Ghiotto, Jason Hewitt, Alex Kane and Chad Allison were called names and subjected to cat-calls, hostile language and other sexually explicit acts by scantily clad parade attendees on July 21, 2007.
The firefighters, who were assigned to a station in the Hillcrest neighborhood, where the parade took place, were ordered to take part when another crew backed out the night before the event.
Limandri said the firefighters should be awarded up to $1 million apiece in damages.
Ghiotto admitted he probably committed "career suicide" by filing a complaint against the city, Limandri said, adding that the city "failed" the plaintiffs.
Hewitt, now a captain, claimed his supervisors retaliated against him for bringing the suit by giving him low marks while he was trying to get his promotion.
Chief Deputy City Attorney Maria Severson questioned Limandri's request for $500,000 to $1 million in damages for each firefighter.
"Four million dollars for being in a parade for an hour and a half?" Severson asked Tuesday. "They were angry about an administrative incident."
Severson suggested the plaintiffs caused their own stress by going public with their complaint and filing an action.
The plaintiffs were required -- as part of their job -- to be in the parade representing the fire department if asked, Severson said in her closing argument.
"We owe it to the citizens to be there," she said. "That is public service at its best."
Severson said the fire department makes every effort to get volunteers to participate in parades, but when that doesn't work, staff are assigned to take part.
The gay pride parade was not a hostile environment, Severson said, noting that no other agencies complained about their involvement in the parade.
She said the firefighters were treated like "rock stars" for most of the parade, except for a small fraction of the event.
Severson argued there was no sexual harassment suffered by the plaintiffs because there was no physical touching and no threat of physical touching. She said any harassment was neither "severe or pervasive," as claimed.
Deliberations were set to resume Thursday morning in the courtroom of Judge Michael Anello.
