Doctor's case goes to jury

Erma Alaniz lost her office manager job, her attorney said, because she stood up to a Yuba City doctor who saw the workplace as his kingdom and used the medical corporation's funds to buy a $21,000 car for a nurse's aide he liked.

But the attorney for Dr. Robert Peppercorn said insubordination was behind Alaniz's firing and that the dismissal was unrelated to the doctor's relationship with nurse's aide Tiffany Rasberry.

Closing arguments Tuesday in the wrongful termination lawsuit Alaniz filed in federal court against Peppercorn provided sharply different accounts of what happened at the medical office in 2005.

"We have an employer who pronounces himself king," attorney Alan Adelman said of Peppercorn's view of the workplace. "I can favor whoever I want for whatever reason I want."

So Peppercorn pursued the 26-year-old Rasberry even though his interest in the nurse's aide was destroying the workplace, Adelman argued.

The doctor gave Rasberry higher pay, along with the car — benefits that angered other employees who complained to Alaniz, the attorney said. The doctor threatened to fire anybody who spoke about the relationship and offered a reward to employees who told him of office workers complaining about his conduct with Rasberry, the attorney said.

"We're talking five months of sheer hell," Adelman said of workplace conditions after Rasberry's hiring in December 2004.

Alaniz, after 12 years of impeccable service, was fired in July 2005 in retaliation for opposing Peppercorn's conduct, the attorney said. Her dismissal contributed to her moving out of Yuba City, the attorney said.

"She cared deeply about that office," he told jurors. "Today is the day there's going to be accountability."

Dennis R. Murphy, the attorney representing Peppercorn, said things had quieted down at the medical office by July 2005. The attorney said Rasberry had been gone more than a month when Peppercorn on July 19 learned that Alaniz, angry that another employee had spoken about Alaniz's interest in a new job elsewhere, confronted the co-worker.

Peppercorn then met with Alaniz and decided to fire his office manager.

"There is no testimony that complaints about Tiffany Rasberry came up in this meeting or were even discussed," the attorney said.

Alaniz didn't show Peppercorn acted unlawfully at work, he said. "The only thing they're contending is that he flirted with Ms. Rasberry in the workplace and gave her gifts," Murphy told jurors. "Whether he was flirting with her — liked her," the attorney added, "is not illegal."

Employers aren't prevented from favoring a wife, son, daughter or girlfriend at work, the attorney said.

The seven women and one man on the federal jury in Sacramento began deliberations Tuesday.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appeal-democrat.com.