Rivera Montañez Rehuel - Caguas, Puerto Rico

The only offers to alleviate the plaintiff's harassment came from residents who told her that if she had sexual relations with them, they would protect her throughout the residency. When the plaintiff was a first year resident, two of her superiors, Dr. Rehuel Rivera Montanez (third year), and Dr. Morales (fourth year), made continual remarks about her body and often moved so close to her that she had to tell them not to "bother" her. Both men also made repeated sexual advances, which, on each occasion, the plaintiff rejected.9  Soon after it became clear that the plaintiff would not respond to their demands for sex, they became unfriendly and even hostile. Dr. Morales "made [her] life unbearable" when she rotated through his service; and Dr. Rivera insisted that she be taken off his service altogether. When the plaintiff complained to Dr. Oben, the chief resident, he explained that it was "characteristic" for a "low level woman resident to keep a relationship with a high level resident or an attending in order to ease her way through [the Program]."10

Dr. Rivera would often lead a group of approximately eight residents in a "harangue" about how women should not be in surgery. His "bare tolerance" of Dr. Bensen left her with the strong impression that she was out of place.