WASHINGTON -- Reaching final agreement with the CIA over a $410,000 settlement in a sex discrimination suit, a veteran female agent expressed hope yesterday that the agency would change its leadership and culture to remove the "fear of reprisal and retribution" that plagued her.
Her lawyer said she remains concerned that the CIA fails to investigate male employees accused of wife-beating and to discipline those found to have done so. The woman had alleged that she was punished for disciplining subordinates, including one she said had admitted beating his wife.
Under the settlement, the 25-year-veteran, known in court papers only as "Jane Doe Thompson," but identified by sources as Janine M. Brookner, retired from the agency Thursday night.
A CIA source estimated she would receive between $40,000 and $45,000 a year in retirement income in addition to the proceeds from the settlement.
Kent Harrington, the CIA's director of public affairs, said the settlement "does not concede any of the assertions Ms. Thompson has made against the agency or its individual officers." He dismissed the allegations of wife abuse and said "they are made without regard to the damage caused individuals."
An agency source said the financial settlement -- $410,000 plus attorney's fees -- amounted to only a fraction of the amount demanded and included a $25,000 incentive buyout available to all employees of similar tenure under a downsizing effort.
Otherwise, the CIA declined to discuss Ms. Brookner's allegations, including her central charge that she was punished for disciplining subordinates at the CIA's Jamaica station, where she was assigned as station chief in 1989 to clean up a problem-wracked outpost.
Ms. Brookner, 53, alleged that the subordinates, including a deputy accused of beating his wife, retaliated with charges of their own against her. Those charges led to an investigation of her by the agency's inspector general and a letter of reprimand. As part of the settlement, the Jan. 28, 1993, letter of reprimand is to be removed from Ms. Brookner's personnel file.
When the agency's Justice Department lawyers and Ms. Brookner's attorney, Victoria Toensing, agreed in principle to settle the case Dec. 7, CIA Director R. James Woolsey said he wanted to bring the matter to an end.
The settlement has no direct effect on separate negotiations by the CIA to head off a class-action lawsuit by nearly one-third of the agency's female case officers in its directorate of operations, or clandestine division, who contend that the agency has discriminated against women.