SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ A former legislative aide sued the California Senate and recently resigned Sen. Tony Mendoza on Tuesday, alleging she was wrongfully terminated in retaliation for complaining about Mendoza's alleged sexual harassment of a young female staff member.
Mendoza, a Democrat from Artesia, resigned in February under threat that the Senate would expel him after an investigation concluded that he made six female aides uncomfortable with a pattern of "unwanted flirtatious or sexually suggestive behavior." He has denied wrongdoing and is running in the June election to reclaim his seat.
Adriana Ruelas, who filed the lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court, was the legislative director for Mendoza when he terminated her in September. She was not one of the women allegedly sexually harassed.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages and also names Senate administrators, alleges "unlawful termination" based on "retaliation" for Ruelas' complaints regarding Mendoza's "pattern of discrimination, harassment and inappropriate behavior towards a young female staff member." Ruelas also alleges fraud and defamation by state officials.
Micha Star Liberty, Ruelas' attorney, said she hopes the Legislature will change the system to address problems identified by the lawsuit. "This is the first step toward having a healthy, zero-tolerance policy for harassment and retaliation," she said.
Ruelas says that she was warned in late 2016 by David Pacheco, then the director of the California Senate Fellows program, that Mendoza had "issues with women" in the past.
Mendoza twice asked a young female fellow assigned to his office to accompany him on overnight trips involving his post, making the aide uncomfortable, and invited her to his home with an offer to help her work on her resume, the lawsuit alleges.
The allegations of retaliation were previously contained in a formal complaint filed in January by Ruelas that was disputed by Dan Reeves, the chief of staff to then-Senate Leader Kevin de Leon.
Reeves alleged that Ruelas did not complain about Mendoza's behavior until after she was fired last year. An investigation by two outside law firms hired by the Senate concluded that Ruelas and two other former Mendoza staffers who complained about his conduct were terminated for "reasons unrelated to any complaint of sexual harassment."
Ruelas' lawsuit alleges the investigation was flawed and says she made complaints to Mendoza's chief of staff, who told her he had relayed them to Jeannie Oropeza, head of human resources for the Senate, before Ruelas' termination. The lawsuit disputes Mendoza's claim that Ruelas' termination was based on her work performance.
Oropeza and Senate Secretary Daniel Alvarez are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, which also alleges a hostile work environment was created by Mendoza's district director.
