ROCKLAND — A state Human Rights Commission investigator says several male guards at the Knox County Jail have not gotten the message about sexual harassment.

After interviewing jail staff and administrators, Investigator Paul D. Pierce has reported that a significant number of male guards allegedly have harassed their female co-workers and concluded that the department lacks a strong policy against gender-related offenses.

Pierce’s report details several specific incidents, including one in which a male officer allegedly put a choke hold on a female officer to the point where she lost consciousness.

Other incidents include making degrading comments, touching and discrimination.

The Human Rights Commission will meet Oct. 24 to review and act on Pierce’s findings.

The investigation was sparked when a complaint was made by Corrections Officer Lynda Hooper, the victim in the choke-hold case, which allegedly occurred in December 1991.

Hooper testified to Pierce that the choke hold was administered by Sgt. Warren Heath during an argument. She also said Heath frequently called her degrading names.

Several other female officers testified to Pierce about being the victims of insults, unwelcome touching, and discrimination by male officers.

Pierce states that, although the sheriff’s department conducts periodic training to prevent sexual harassment and discrimination, “a significant number of males seemed not to have gotten the message, seemed to think it was fine in the workplace to degrade females. … It cannot be concluded, based on the totality of the testimony, that the employer had an effective strong policy against gender-related harassment in this particular workplace. Therefore, liability can be attributed to the employer.”

Sheriff Daniel Davey said Monday he will withhold comment on much of Pierce’s findings until the Oct. 24 rights commission meeting.

“The commission has not made its determination yet. All of these situations are still under scrutiny,” he said.

Davey said he will contest Pierce’s accusation that the sheriff’s department does not have a strong anti-discrimination policy.

“Whether a policy is strong is a matter of interpretation, but I believe Knox County does have a very clear, definite policy against sexual harassment. The reason no one’s been disciplined under that policy is that the officers with these complaints went directly to the Human Rights Commission instead of to this department. We didn’t even know about these incidents until we heard the state was investigating,” Davey said.