CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2023 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“DON’T
EXPECT MANY NEW #METOO CASES IN SACRAMENTO”
The
rogue’s gallery of California legislators whose careers have been affected or
ended by charges of sexual harassment over the last 10 years or so numbers at
least seven.
But as
lawmakers return to Sacramento for the start of another year’s work, some of
the males among them might be taking comfort in the probability that they won’t
have to be quite as careful in their treatment of female staffers and
colleagues as before.
That’s
because of a decision from Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Steven M.
Gevercer, a Jerry Brown appointee, that forced disclosure of the names of
witnesses who complained about Matt Dababneh, a former Democratic assemblyman
from the western San Fernando Valley portion of Los Angeles.
Lawyers
for the Legislature fought the decision, but eventually turned over the names
of 52 persons involved in the case against Dababneh, who resigned his seat in
late 2017 after serving four years.
Dababneh
was accused in early December 2017
of sexually assaulting Pamela Lopez, a Sacramento lobbyist who alleged that
Dababneh in 2016 pushed her into a Las Vegas hotel bathroom, masturbated in
front of her and urged her to touch him. "I felt the weight of a body push
me into the restroom," she said.
Dababneh
denied the allegation and threatened to sue Lopez for defamation. His
resignation came after an investigation by the Legislature. Now he has the
names of everyone who came forward to speak about his allegedly frequent behavior.
This
might mean that present, former and future legislators subjected to #MeToo
complaints can also get the names of anyone coming forward to speak about their
supposed proclivities. That list includes Democrats like Tony Mendoza, Bob
Hertzberg (accused only of hugging people), Autumn Burke, Raul Bocanegra, Steve
Fox and Rod Wright, who was accused only of using “coarse and vulgar” language
with employees, plus Republican Travis Allen, who vehemently denied any
misbehavior.
It also
means witnesses may be less likely to come forward in the future, as
legislative assurances of secrecy have now turned out not to be legally
binding.
One labor
lawyer told a reporter that “To learn at the end of the day that the person you
had the courage to come out and complain about is going to get a list of you
and everybody else who provided statements, that is absolutely going to
discourage people from coming forward.”
It was
already bad enough for women who believed they had been assaulted in one manner
or another to have to come forward in a Legislature where some former leaders
have been exposed as racist or sexist.
One
example is former state Senate President Kevin de Leon, exposed as anti-black
and possibly anti-Semitic in an infamous recording that caused the resignations
of Los Angeles City Council President Nuri Martinez and Ron Herrera, a former
Teamsters Union leader and then president of the Los Angeles County Labor
Federation. Both President Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom called on de Leon also
to resign the Los Angeles council seat in which he sought refuge after being
termed out of the Legislature.
The
latest developments come after multiple former legislative staffers complained
to the San Francisco Chronicle of steady mistreatment and foot-dragging by the
Legislature in acting on their complaints, while also failing to keep their
complaints confidential.
Now there
may be nothing much to keep those complaints private, as any newly accused
legislators can not only expect to have names, but will most likely seek the
chance to have their accusers questioned and cross-examined as they try to
clear their own names.
Most of
the #MeToo complaints involving legislators come not from top-level lobbyists
or policy advisers accustomed to speaking publicly, but rather from secretaries
and other aides not specifically prepared for heavy questioning.
The
result, therefore, is that lawyers who expect fewer alleged victims of
harassment or other mistreatment to come forward will probably prove correct.
Which
means lawmakers may now have a freer hand to misbehave and act out their sexual
fantasies than they’ve have had in many years. All because of a single action
by one local judge.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias
at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most
Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,"
is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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