A Circuit Court jury awarded a former tour company worker more than $1.2 million in a sexual harassment lawsuit she filed against the employer.

Rieko Aoki, a former customer service agent with H.I.S. Hawaii, will receive $1.1 million in punitive damages and $135,000 in compensatory damages under a jury verdict issued on Thursday.

Emlyn Higa, an attorney for H.I.S. Hawaii, said his client plans to appeal the verdict.

Higa denied that his client sexually harassed Aoki but acknowledged that workers in Aoki's department engaged in sexual humor and horseplay in front of Aoki. He said that witnesses testified during trial that Aoki was not offended by that behavior and was in some instances a willing participant.

In her suit filed in May 2004, Aoki alleged that she was fired by H.I.S. Hawaii after she objected to the harassment by her supervisor, John Shortridge, and others at the company.

Legal experts said the size of the award is relatively rare in such cases.

"A million dollars in punitive damages is very unusual these days and would indicate that the jury at least perceived some outrageously inappropriate or unlawful conduct," said local employment-law attorney Bruce Voss.

Aoki's attorney, Larry Remillard, alleged in a news release on Thursday that "numerous employees witnessed repeated instances of several sexual harassment of Ms. Aoki" by Shortridge and others at the company.

Remillard said the company, which has about 80 local employees, ignored Aoki's harassment allegations and later promoted Shortridge as the local company's chief operating officer.

Shortridge currently works in Japan for the local company's parent, H.I.S. Japan, according to Higa.

At the time of the alleged offenses, H.I.S. Hawaii was not owned by the Japanese company but was owned by Tactical Affairs Corp., Higa added.

Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.