Dershowitz to Appeal Case

Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said Thursday that he will appeal a controversial 1993 sexual harassment ruling in Massachusetts in order to defend the principle of free speech.

The decision, issued in Suffolk Superior Court, found David Heller guilty of sexual harassment after he placed a photo of the face of a coworker, Sylvia Smith Bowman, on the body of a nude centerfold and distributed it around their work place.

Heller circulated the collage during a hotly contested union campaign for the Service Employees International Union in which Bowman was running for president.

The case is currently pending in the state court of appeals.

Dershowitz said yesterday that because the photos were circulated in response to the union campaign, the court decision is a form of political censorship and a threat to free speech.

"This is the first time a photo collage has been unprotected by the First Amendment," he said yesterday.

But Nancy Shilepsky, the opposing attorney, said that the issue really concerns discrimination in the work place.

"This case involves unlawful workplace discrimination in the form of harassment," she said.

Shilepsky argued that the campaign election for union president is not a general public election and the same laws do not govern it.

Heller's actions in the workplace constituted harassment, she said.

Dershowitz also claimed that Bowman made several obscene comments about Heller.

"Each [person] reduced their opponent to body parts," Dershowitz said.

Shilepsky said his accusation is inaccurate.

The case has provoked controversy in the legal community.

Many organizations in the state, including the Boston Bar Association and the Women's Bar Association, have filed on behalf of Bowman.

The Anti-Defamation League is also deciding whether it will take a stand on the case.