A Sacramento State professor who has been accused of sexually harassing four students and three professors has sued the university, alleging that it botched its investigation of the claims against him and discriminated against him for being Latino.

The complicated case involving Spanish professor Wilfrido Corral has already cost California State University more than $900,000 to settle claims from some of the women who say he harassed them.

Now the university is preparing for a September trial in the case brought by Corral, who remains in the classroom even though the university fired him in 2009. Corral challenged the termination, and his appeals process is still under way.

Corral did not return calls and emails seeking an interview for this story. Attorneys representing him declined to comment.

But his saga is well-documented in court records, legal settlements and university reports The Bee obtained through public records requests.

It began in 2005, when over a period of several months that stretched into the next year, four Sacramento State students complained that Corral had made sexual advances. In separate accounts, the students – all female – said he took them to dinner, made sexual comments or hugged and kissed them, according to a university investigation.

Three of Corral's colleagues in the foreign language department – French professor Nicole Buffard, German professor Marjorie Gelus and Spanish professor Kathy Moore – reported the students' complaints to university officials.

And then, said CSU attorney Dawn Theodora, "Corral basically went on a vendetta against them."

"He's tried to twist the whole story and make (the professors) look like the bad guys when they were just trying to do their jobs" by reporting the allegations, she said.

CSU investigated the students' claims and deemed them legitimate. In 2006, the university reprimanded Corral and sent him to sexual harassment training, Theodora said.

In 2007, one of the four students, Judy Aguilar, sued Corral and CSU over the alleged harassment. The university settled the suit for $15,000.

Meanwhile, tensions mounted in the foreign language department between Corral and the professors who reported his alleged harassment of the students. Each side accused the other of intimidation and interrupting their ability to succeed at work.

Corral called Buffard a "French whore" and referred to Gelus and Moore as "lesbian bitches" in front of staff and students, according to a university investigation. He told students that Moore was hired because she was in a sexual relationship with Gelus, the report says.

Theodora, the CSU attorney, said that Moore and Gelus are not in a relationship and that Moore is a nun who has taken a vow of chastity.

In 2008, Gelus retired through CSU's early retirement program, claiming she couldn't continue working because of the hostile environment created by Corral.

In February 2009, Corral sued CSU, several Sacramento State administrators and professors Buffard, Gelus and Moore. His suit alleges that the university didn't give him access to the advice he needed to fairly respond to the harassment claims against him.

Corral's supervisor "suggested that (Corral) make an appointment with the University's legal counsel to discuss the allegations against him only after issuance of the reprimand," according to his suit against the university.

The suit also accuses Gelus and Moore of creating a hostile work environment by, among other things, "inquiring into imaginary acts of 'sexual harassment' among (Corral's) colleagues and to (his) prior place of employment."

And it accuses university administrators of being biased against Corral because of his Latin American heritage, including a comment by an HR official who referred to Corral as having "a very good tan."

Theodora said Corral's suit was a "deflective tactic to pre-empt any other action against him and to retaliate against the women, because the women are the ones complaining about his behavior."

In May 2009, Moore also retired through the early retirement program, claiming, like her colleague, that she couldn't continue working because of the hostile environment created by Corral.

A few months later, Moore, Gelus and Buffard sued CSU and Corral, alleging that he harassed and intimidated them, called them rude names related to gender or sexual orientation, and created a work environment that caused two of them to retire early.

In December 2010, CSU settled its part of that case, giving Gelus $450,000, Moore $300,000 and Buffard $150,000. Their case against Corral remained in effect.

In March, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Robert Hight consolidated the two cases involving Corral – his suit against CSU and his colleagues' suit against him – and set a trial date for Sept. 12.

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