"We suffered. We cried a lot," she says. "We felt scared a lot."

Incidents of Verbal Abuse

Although Orren describes his own behavior as "discourteous and rude," those on the receiving end use much stronger language when describing encounters with Orren.

"He called me at 7 a.m. on a Sunday and just screamed at me over the phone for two or three minutes, saying I had no standards, that I'd let him down," the co-worker recalls. "It was just this very berating, abusive phone call."

Barrios also uses the word abusive when describing Orren's behavior.

"There was abusive behavior toward people in less powerful positions," Barrios says. "Secretaries were a favorite target."

The former staff assistant, who described Orren as "very sexist, erratically moody, with not a whole lot of respect for women in general" says things were so bad that she had considered taking legal action.

"Later, I [was contacted about] sexual harassment charges," she says. "I know I said that I'd talk to people about it. I don't remember what happened to that."

However, the person involved in the negotiations says sexual harassment may not be the best way to characterize Orren's behavior, and it appears that no such charges were ever filed.

"Based on my recollection, I'm not certain the experiences the women described could be classified as sexual harassment," the person says. "It was shockingly inappropriate behavior [that] violated standards. It had a gender bias, but not explicit sexual content."

"The stories were about repeated episodes [of] shaking, red-faced yelling, standing too close, wildly gesturing," the person says.

But the co-worker says Orren's behavior was not based on gender.

"While I think all of his secretaries were women, I'm not sure it was a gender component," the co-worker says. "He could be just as nasty toward men."

However, the description offered of his behavior by the person in negotiations is accurate, he says.

"The one detail that wasn't the case with me was standing too close, but everything else...sounds exactly right," the co-worker says. "It was inappropriate behavior--lots of yelling."