Hitting the bottom line

From testimony taken in April in the case of Janet Orlando v. Alarm One Inc., et al., a sexual-harassment case in Fresno, California. The plaintiff is a former door-to-door saleswoman for Alarm One, a company that produces home-security systems. Rondell Harris, former vice president in the Fresno office, is interviewed here by his attorney, Katherine Hart; Vince Hernandez and Crystal Melendez, former employees, are interviewed by Orlando's attorney, Nicholas Wagner.

KATHERINE HART: Now, we've heard testimony about the Hayward office as being a place where the spanking might have originated. Did you see any spanking in 1999 when you were first employed there?

RONDELL HARRIS: No. It was more of—if you don't get a deal, you got to eat this baby food or sardines and mustard or something like that. I went to college, so it reminded me of going out for a fraternity or something during that week of—I forget what they call it.

HART: Hazing.

HARRIS: That was one of the factors that motivated me to produce the numbers that I did. So I thought it was positive. Anything to make me more money is positive. I'll give you an example. Big Mike would come into the meeting room and say, “Anybody who gets two deals today, I'll give you $1,000 cash tomorrow. If you don't get a deal, you got to eat this can of sardines.” I usually was the guy who put the money in my pocket and laughed at the people who had to eat the sardines. To me that was funny.

HART: You didn't like to eat sardines?

HARRIS: No.

HART: But at that time you did not see any spanking at all?

HARRIS: No, no. Water balloons, stuff like that.

HART: And then after the Hayward office, where did you relocate?

HARRIS: I was promoted to start up an office in Sacramento.

HART: Did you import from the Hayward office any of the sardine/baby-food type of play?

HARRIS: Absolutely. If it's not broke, don't fix it. If you didn't produce a deal, you got to squash an egg on your head, or whipped cream in your face, or pie in the eye, things we had. Or, I think we even did the dressing-up-in-the-diaper thing, too.

NICHOLAS WAGNER: Now, every morning before you hit the streets to go door-to-door to sell alarms, did you have a meeting at the Fresno office?

VINCE HERNANDEZ: Yes.

WAGNER: Did you ever see any women get spanked with a security sign at any of these meetings?

HERNANDEZ: Yes. Basically, you'd get up in front of the room, put your hands on the wall, bend over, and get hit with the sign.

WAGNER: Were you ever spanked with a sign?

HERNANDEZ: Yes. Maybe twice.

WAGNER: Did you consent to being hit, or were you just following orders to go up and get hit?

HERNANDEZ: I was just following orders.

WAGNER: How many times did you see Ms. Orlando get spanked? Do you think two or three times or—

HERNANDEZ: Yes.

WAGNER: Did you ever notice whether she had any problems after she got hit with the sign?

HERNANDEZ: After the meeting, she was limping. She said it kind of hurt.

WAGNER: Were you employed in the Fresno office of Alarm One?

CRYSTAL MELENDEZ: Yes, I was.

WAGNER: Why did you quit?

MELENDEZ: I didn't like the environment—there were a lot of male, aggressive, vulgar things going on. During sales-training meetings they would have this thing where they would, like, hype you up. I was hit with a sign. So, I wasn't really comfortable.

WAGNER: You were hit with a sign?

MELENDEZ: Uh-huh.

WAGNER: Okay. What were some of the vulgar things you heard being said?

MELENDEZ: Um, some of the things that were said when I was up there were—I really don't want—

WAGNER: What do you mean, when you were up there?

MELENDEZ: Um, well, I was facing the board, and Rob was holding a sign. And you can just hear, like, whooping and hollering in the background, and he hit me on my backside.

WAGNER: Did you see anyone else get spanked that day?

MELENDEZ: Yes, I did. Janet, Jessie, and Kristy.

WAGNER: And what were the men yelling when you got spanked?

MELENDEZ: Uh, “Spank that ass,” “Spank it hard,” “Make sure she feels it”—things like that.

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