LUBEC – An investigator for the Maine Human Rights Commission found reasonable grounds to conclude that a former Lubec businessman violated the Maine Human Rights Act.

Investigator Paul Pierce found that Manfred Zorn, owner of a store called Quoddy Dolphin, sexually harassed Michelle Greene and that Zorn’s behavior resulted in Greene’s resignation as bookkeeper.

Both sexual harassment and discrimination that creates a working condition so unpleasant that an employee is compelled to resign are violations of Maine employment law.

Patricia Ryan, executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission, said last week that the investigator’s report has gone to the commission, which may consider it at its Feb. 24 meeting.

Zorn bought the Quoddy Dolphin in the fall of 2001 and ran the complex – which included a gas station, motel, convenience store, Laundromat and car wash – until October 2002, when he closed the business and left the area.

According to Pierce’s report, Greene began working as a bookkeeper in December 2001 and initially shared an upstairs office with the store manager.

In February, according to the investigator, Zorn moved into Greene’s office and transferred the store manager downstairs. On Valentine’s Day, Zorn gave Greene a teddy bear holding a bottle of perfume.

Over the next few months, according to the investigator’s report, Zorn left catalogs on Greene’s desk with the pages folded to outfits and notes saying Greene “would look good in that.”

He made numerous comments on how much he enjoyed traveling and how he’d like Greene to travel with him for a year, assisting with writing a book and living in a two-story camper.

According to the investigator, Zorn told Greene – who has a husband and son – that she could call home once a week.

He left on her desk notes and pictures – which he said looked like her – despite her objections, according to the investigator’s report.

In early April, during a business trip from Lubec to St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Zorn told Greene that he loved her, according to the report.

Greene responded by telling Zorn she didn’t think she could work for him anymore because she was too uncomfortable.

According to Pierce’s report, Zorn apologized and told Greene he didn’t want her to leave the business.

Green resigned early the next week.

Zorn told the human rights investigator that the things he said “were rather dumb, wrong and insensitive,” but that he was not engaging in “what is portrayed as sexual harassment,” according to Pierce’s report.

Zorn apologized to Greene in a letter he wrote two days after her resignation, telling her that she was “a wonderful human being, a woman, and employee” and that he missed her “on the first and third statement.”