JACKSONVILLE - A federal jury began listening to witnesses Monday in a sexual harassment suit against the Florida Department of Corrections.

Five women, now all former DOC employees, filed the suit in 2004 claiming their civil rights were violated when they were sexually harassed by male employees at prisons in North Florida. The women also claimed that although the department had written policies banning such behavior, officials did nothing to stop the harassers but instead retaliated and penalized the women by transferring them to other shifts, other job assignments and other prisons.

During opening arguments Monday afternoon, attorneys for both sides warned jurors that they could expect to hear coarse and profane language in a case that involves descriptions of body parts and sex acts.

Neil L. Henrichsen, one of the attorneys representing the women, told jurors to expect defense witnesses to verbally bash each woman's character and background because "that's how the Department of Corrections operates."

Henrichsen also told jurors the department did not take the women's claims seriously in part because their male co-workers made harassing comments when no one else could hear them while the women worked at Baker, Lawtey and Union correctional institutions, at the Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler and at the Memorial Hospital prison unit in Jacksonville.

The women who filed the suit are: Irene S. Johnson of Jacksonville, hired in 2000; Karen A. Jones of Starke, hired in 1996; Pat Sprow of Lawtey, hired in 1995; Felicia Suelter of Lawtey, hired in 1980 and Theresa K. Wilds of Glen St. Mary, hired in 1994.

The women are expected to take the stand during the trial scheduled to last three weeks.

The department is being represented by Jacksonville attorney Jeffrey Allen Cramer. In his opening argument, Cramer told jurors that "not every remark or horseplay or flirtation amounts to harassment."

Instead, Cramer said, only extreme conduct or conduct that creates a hostile work environment could be considered harassing. He then gave jurors an overview of what they could expect to hear about each woman's background.

Cramer said witnesses would testify that behaviors exhibited by the women included asking for help from a male co-worker to open a strip club; being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and attention deficit syndrome; waiting 18 months to report the alleged harassment and then refusing to cooperate with department investigators; accusing an alleged harasser with bringing drugs onto state property; enjoying talking at work about sex acts; and having 14 of 17 colleagues on one shift complain about one of the plaintiff's supervisory styles.

Before jury selection got under way on Monday, Karen Jones told The Sun that she and the other women are seeking $300,000 from the DOC as a group as well as individual damages to be determined by the jury.

Earlier this year the DOC was found guilty in an unrelated case for allowing male inmates to sexually harass female nurses at Washington Correctional Institution. The jury awarded $990,000 to 12 nurses in that case.

James McDonough, who took over as prison secretary in early 2006, said sexual harassment was "an issue I've addressed from the get-go along with racism and vulgar use of language and all the bad behavior that can bring down the professionalism of the department."

McDonough said his administration has taken "swift action appropriate to the case" when allegations of sexual harassment have been substantiated. However, no action has been taken to discipline any of those named in the current civil lawsuit. "I do not concede anything on this particular case," he said.