Male clerk gets gender discrimination settlement

Arthur Lane, 47, filed the federal lawsuit in June 1995 against Clark County Clerk Loretta Bowman. The parties reached a settlement in February on the third day of trial, and the County Commission approved the deal in March.

"I'm not out to hurt anyone," Lane said. "All I wanted was to be treated fairly."

Lane was hired as a court clerk in September 1992 and was assigned a short time later to District Judge Thomas Foley. Lane claimed he was demoted shortly after Foley's death in December 1993.

In his lawsuit, Lane accused Bowman of inviting him to watch pornographic movies with her while the two were at work. He also claimed other court clerks had pinched him.

Bowman, who has held her position since 1965, declined to comment on the settlement. She previously had denied Lane's allegations.

In an interview shortly after Lane filed his lawsuit, Bowman said she moved Lane out of Foley's former courtroom after Lane found a derogatory word for homosexual scrawled on his desk.

The court clerk was fired in October 1996, but a hearing officer reversed the termination in June 1997. Lane said he was given $25,000 in back pay and placed in the county's human resources department, where he works as a human resources technician.

Lane said he agreed to settle his case after U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben made several rulings that appeared to favor the defendants.

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