Colby, former teacher reach settlement in harassment case

A former Colby College instructor who sued the college on grounds of sexual harassment and defamation has reached a tentative settlement with the Waterville institution, according to lawyers involved in the case.

An out-of-court settlement on behalf of Dorothy Rosenberg of Northampton, Mass., is expected to be finalized later this month, said attorneys representing the plaintiff and Colby College on Monday.

Rosenberg sued the college in 1988, saying she had been sexually harassed by Hubert Kueter, a senior college faculty member. She filed a second, $200,000 lawsuit against the college in 1989 after Colby College President William Cotter and Kueter wrote allegedly derogatory letters that were printed in the Maine Times, a statewide weekly, and the Colby Echo, the campus paper.

The 1988 case, which was expected to go to trial this month in U.S. District Court in Bangor, has been removed from the trial schedule, according to a court clerk.

Neither of the plaintiff’s or defendant’s attorneys would comment on details of the proposed settlement.

“We have in general discussed what we’re going to do with this case … and orally, we seem to have a meeting of the minds,” said attorney Michael Altman of Boston, representing Rosenberg. Comparing the settlement to an election, Altman stressed, however, that “it isn’t resolved until there’s a final written document.”

The resolution has been reached for both lawsuits but papers need to be finalized, said the college’s attorney, Hugh MacMahon of Portland.

“I am not at liberty to discuss the terms of it,” he said.

MacMahon also said that the out-of-court settlement would not be an admission of any wrongdoing by the college.

Rosenberg, who has a doctorate in 20th-century German literature, is studying in Berlin, Germany, on a Fullbright scholarship. A man who answered the telephone at her Massachusetts residence and identified himself as her husband said she would return to the United States later this month. He also said that the out-of-court settlement included financial restitution, but he would not say how much money was involved.

The plaintiff filed her sexual-harassment lawsuit after she had been denied a tenured position at the college and lost her job. The college’s Affirmative Action Policy Advisory Committee found that she had been discriminated against, but concluded there was insufficient evidence to show sexual harassment had occurred.

The Maine Human Rights Commission, which considered the matter, also issued no finding because the case went beyond a six-month statuatory filing period.