YOUNGSTOWN Park worker faces charge

The woman says she was frightened, at first, to report what happened but did file a complaint in April.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jerald A. Gordon, charged with sexual imposition, is serving a three-day suspension from his job as a park department supervisor.
The suspension began Thursday, the day an arrest warrant was issued for Gordon, 49, of Scioto Street. He will be back to work Tuesday.
Gordon, a maintenance crew supervisor, is accused of improperly touching a female employee of the park department in January.
Initially, the complaint, made in April, was sexual harassment, said Lt. Robin Lees, police department information officer. The three-day suspension represents disciplinary action, he said.
If convicted of sexual imposition, Gordon's job is in jeopardy, Lees said.
Gordon was arrested at home Thursday afternoon and arraigned Friday in municipal court. His bond is $1,000, with 10 percent allowed to be paid.
Pretrial set
A pretrial was set for Jan. 17 in Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly's court.
Because the charge against Gordon is a misdemeanor, he will not be suspended from work pending the outcome of the criminal case, Law Director John A. McNally IV said Friday. Typically, city workers are suspended when the case involves a felony and can have an impact on their job, he said.
The 52-year-old woman who initiated the complaint said Friday that Gordon approached her at the Wick Park Pavilion and grabbed her breasts. She said she begged him to stop.
She said Gordon has told other men she works with that she's "no good, easy and on cocaine." Some of the men approached her and asked to see "body parts," more than breasts, she said.
The woman said she was afraid, at first, to report what happened. Once she did, Joseph R. McRae, park and recreation director, made sure she and Gordon were separated on the job.
She said McRae has done whatever he could to alleviate the situation.
Wrote a report
She said McRae had her write a report for the law department in April, which then recommended a three-day suspension. She said Friday that she doesn't understand why it took so long to impose the suspension.
In September, she said, Gordon said he "had something" for her and the words, she believed, were a veiled threat. That's when she went to the police.
The case was assigned to Detective Sgt. Delphine Baldwin Casey, a member of the Crisis Intervention Unit, the woman said.
"If Delphine had not taken the case, I don't feel I would be as far as I am now," the woman said. "She has been a comfort and calls to check on me."
Casey, contacted Friday, referred questions to Lees.
meade@vindy.com