LC Jury Awards $442,000 To Fired Grocery Store Worker

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) – A jury has awarded more than $442,000 to a woman who alleged she was fired from an Albuquerque grocery store after she filed a sexual harassment complaint.

The US District Court jury in Las Cruces found (Friday) that Smith’s had retaliated against 42-year-old Debbie Gurule Rivera.

Jurors awarded her $365,000 in punitive damages, $26,000 for emotional distress and $51,751 dollars for lost pension benefits.

Rivera had worked at the store for more than 20 years until she was fired in January 2005. She alleged her supervisor began making sexual comments to her beginning in February 2004.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-03-07-07 1124EST