SANTA ANA -- Two former employees of a Mission Viejo doctor contend in a lawsuit filed this week that he repeatedly forced them to submit to spankings before receiving their paychecks.

J.F., 25, of Mission Viejo and Nichole Dawn Swanson, 24, of Vista filed suit in Orange County Superior Court seeking damages in excess of $250,000 for lost wages and emotional suffering.

The two women say Dr. Robert W. Tom, 58, spanked and harassed them throughout their 10-month employment as office assistants in his general practice.

Tom did not return calls to his office Tuesday and his attorney could not be reached for comment.

The suit contends that Tom used spanking to discipline the two women for what he considered lapses in job performance. The women's attorney, Dirk Bruinsma, said Tuesday that the women told their parents, who called authorities. Orange County sheriff's deputies removed the women's possessions from the office, but no charges resulted from an investigation into the allegations, according to Sheriff's Lt. Ron Wilkerson.

Tom has been licensed to practice in California since February 1970 and has no past discipline record or pending accusations, according to Candis Cohen, spokeswoman for the Medical Board of California.

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