BANGOR (AP) – A former court advocate for Hancock County has sued District Attorney Michael Povich in federal court, alleging that he created a hostile work environment by subjecting her to sexual comments and references.

Tammy Denning of Bucksport filed the civil lawsuit on Friday in U.S. District Court in Bangor. She is asking for a jury trial and seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

The suit repeats the complaints that last year led Hancock County commissioners to instruct Povich to “treat all county employees as well as the general public with complete courtesy.”

Denning was hired as the county’s victim-witness advocate in 1999 under Povich’s supervision. In 2002, she filed a grievance with seven complaints.

Her lawsuit repeats many of those allegations, including that Povich used derogatory and lewd terms when referring to her and others, including female defendants in criminal cases.

Povich told reporters in 2002 that he believed Denning filed the grievance against him because he reprimanded her for inappropriate actions at work.

“I do shout, I do swear, I do tease, and I’ve done it to everyone in this office,” Povich said in May 2002. “When an employee says, ‘I don’t like that,’ it stops.”

The lawsuit alleges that after county commissioners upheld five of the seven points outlined in Denning’s grievance and offered to find her a different position in the county, Povich retaliated against her and worked to make her working life difficult.

Denning resigned on Jan. 29, 2003, according to court documents.

Five months earlier, she filed a notice of claim against county and state officials seeking $150,000 in monetary damages, and lodged a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission.

Denning now works as a paralegal in a Bangor law office, according to her attorney, A.J. Greif of Bangor.

Povich, who has been district attorney for Hancock and Washington counties since 1973, was re-elected easily to another four-year term in June 2002.

He referred questions to the Attorney General’s office, which will defend him because he is considered a state official. Susan Herman, in the Attorney General’s office, said her office will file a response to the complaint in due course.