Two requests for a date with a pretty co-worker in two years, both of which were answered with "no". A year later, the postal worker sent the lady in question a dozen roses. What he received this time was from his bosses - and it was his head on a plate, for sexual harassment.
But what he got from Administrative Judge Joseph Hallock was a kind of reprieve. Hallock has ruled there were no grounds at all to fire Abdullah al-Amin for sexual harassment. But he also denied al-Amin's appeal, saying he "probably" disrupted the woman's work routine.
al-Amin says he sent the roses, in fact, as a way of making up to the woman for having troubled her the first two times, according to New York Post columnist Steve Dunleavy.
"I spoke to her twice, three, maybe four times in a three-year period," he told Dunleavy. "I only saw her seven or eight times in my life. When she complained about me asking her out twice, I thought there was some kind of repentance needed so I sent her a card and a dozen roses."
According to the Postal Service, more repentance was needed than - and for - that. As Dunleavy writes, "Yesterday, (al-Amin's) lawyer, Robert Lashaw, was scratching what few hairs he had left in his head: 'Can you believe this? Sexual harassment? Never once has there been an allegation of any sexual connotation at all in this entire case. The guy didn't get a date. This is sexual harassment?
" 'Did he say anything sexy? Did he even talk to her sexually? Did he use any unveiled terms to this woman that would have indicated any sexual harassment? No.'"
According to the woman herself, Monica Best, "no" was the word al-Amin simply didn't understand. "No, he did nothing sexy," she told Dunleavy. "He didn't touch me, but he didn't understand no…Even saying hello. When it's not welcome, it's not welcome. You shouldn't say hello to a person."
Dunleavy says al-Amin should only get a different kind of treatment: "some kind of transplant. He gets 'no' twice and spends money on roses?'"
Al-Amin reportedly is due $17,000 in pension, but his attorney told Dunleavy the Postal Service won't release it until he's exhausted all appeals, and "(h)e can't afford the appeals to exhaust to get the $17,000."
