AUBURN – A worker at a local prosthetics company complained in a lawsuit that her boss retaliated against her because she rebuffed his sexual advances.

In a civil suit filed in Androscoggin County Superior Court, Sherry Walker said David Johnson, owner of Advance Orthotic & Prosthetics Services Inc., has been discriminating against her at the office.

Her boss, through an attorney, denied the allegations.

He cut her year-end bonus last year from the $1,200 she should have gotten to $500, she said in the suit, through her attorney, Guy Loranger of Saco.

Johnson cited her in 2007 with a written warning for using his fax cover sheet to send a fax for her personal use, an allegation she denies.

Last year, he made several false allegations of misconduct against her and put them into her employment file, she said in the suit.

He also began to reduce her work responsibilities. He was “unfairly” critical or her work and monitored it closely, she said. He scrutinized her work, something he hadn’t done with other employees, she said.

In June last year, Johnson removed her from her job supervising the front office, she said. He then began denying her vacation requests for the first time since she began working there.

Walker lodged a complaint against Johnson with the Maine Human Rights Commission, which issued a “right to sue” letter, but didn’t reach a conclusion as to whether there were reasonable grounds for her complaint.

Johnson sent Walker a letter telling her that “if she only opened her mind to the fact that they could have had a great life together, things would be different,” the suit said.

Walker said Johnson created a hostile work environment in violation of the Maine Human Rights Act. He also retaliated against her for rejecting his sexual advances, also a violation of the Maine Human Rights Act, she said.

She’s seeking damages and attorney’s fees.

Through his attorney, Daniel Bates of Gardiner, Johnson denied Walker’s charges.

“There is nothing to Sherry Walker’s allegations,” Bates said Tuesday. “Her employer, my client, has done nothing wrong, certainly nothing discriminatory. And the facts will bear that out in court fairly easily.”