LOS ANGELES – A former longtime Southern California Edison Co. employee is suing the utility, alleging he was wrongfully fired in 2021 on false sexual harassment grounds after he alleged his accuser, a fellow worker, manipulated her time card.
Robert Castellano’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges sex and gender discrimination, defamation, and libel per se. He seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages in the suit filed Wednesday.
Castellanos alleges that the SCE investigation upon which the allegedly false sexual harassment claims were grounded was based on “a stereotypical gender-based perception that males in supervisory positions are more likely than females to engage in inappropriate and sexually offensive conduct toward members of the opposite sex.”
SCE spokesman David Eisenhauer issued a statement Thursday in response to the complaint.
“We have not yet received Mr. Castellanos’ complaint, and once we have a chance to fully review it, we will respond as part of the legal proceedings,” Eisenhauer said.
Castellanos, 55, of Whittier, worked for SCE for nearly 30 years, starting as a part-time computer operator, the suit states. He was promoted over time to full-time posts that led up to him having a lead operator job and he was often praised for his work, the suit states.
In 2017, Trina Queen, a co-defendant in the suit, was hired by SCE as an independent contractor and she eventually also became a full-time computer operator, according to the suit....
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