Hearing underway for Sask. nurse accused of sexually harassing co-workers
A disciplinary hearing is underway concerning a Saskatchewan nurse, Marlon Gonzales, who's accused of sexually harassing a number of his co-workers.
One of the first to testify at the hearing in Regina Wednesday was a licensed practical nurse (LPN) who worked with Gonzales at the Balcarres Integrated Care Centre.
When she started in March of 2015, it was her first job as an LPN.
Gonzales was the charge nurse and the woman's supervisor.
She told the hearing, which is being held by the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses' Association, that Gonzales made numerous inappropriate comments — at least one per shift.
- He asked her about her virginity, and about why she wouldn't date him.
- He said she was breaking his heart and that she would look good with her hair down.
- He talked about his girlfriend and said she wasn't nice to him.
On one occasion, after she told him she had never eaten a mango, he placed one on her car with a heart and an arrow drawn on it, she said.
When she objected to his various actions and comments, he'd apologize or laugh it off and say he didn't mean it, she said.
Then it became more physical. He would grab her hand and try to lift her up.
One night, he grabbed her hands and put them up above her head as she backed against a wall.
"I said, 'No, you're crazy!' and went back inside and pretended like nothing happened," she told the hearing.
At points during her testimony on Wednesday, the woman became tearful.
Gonzales is expected to testify in his own defence later in the hearing.
