A former legislative employee for California Sen. Bob Archuleta is suing him and the state Senate, alleging she experienced workplace discrimination and retaliation after she refused the lawmaker’s romantic gestures while working in his district office.
The complaint, filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, outlines incidents in which she alleges Archuleta made inappropriate comments about her breasts, detailed affairs he had and publicly reprimanded and embarrassed her. She is referred to as “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that the former legislative employee experienced retaliation and ultimately had “no choice but to resign because of her intolerable working environment” after she raised complaints of sexual harassment to a superior.
“What she experienced instead was that she was excluded and kind of shunned thereafter in the assignments she was given,” Doe’s Los Angeles-based attorney Carney Shegerian said. “Her voice was muted.”
In an emailed statement, Archuleta, a Democrat, said the claims were “categorically false,” and that he looked forward to “disproving those allegations in court.”
“My entire career, I have supported the right of every Californian to feel safe, valued and protected in the workplace,” he said. “While I would never knowingly mistreat or disrespect a female employee, I believe in their absolute right to come forward and be heard if and when they believe that standard has been violated. Every voice has value.”
The former employee started working for the Legislature in 2006, according to the lawsuit, but had only worked for Archuleta for a year and a half before leaving her post in September 2020.
Her complaint centers on Archuleta’s alleged unwanted romantic pursuit of her, but also claims a culture of sexism and gender discrimination was tolerated in the district office.
In one instance, Archuleta allegedly invited the employee out for cocktails following a July 2019 work event. Over drinks, the lawsuit claims, Archuleta asked personal questions of the staffer and then invited her to a mariachi restaurant so she could “perform for him.”
“Doe responded that the office could plan a staff outing, but Archuleta insisted, ‘No, no, no, just you and me,’” the complaint includes.
Archuleta also that evening “bluntly drove the conversation to a discussion of his various love affairs,” the lawsuit includes.
“‘I would only date my equal,” the filing alleges Archuleta said. “All my love affairs have consisted of women I felt were equals...If you just go out with a woman who does not have a professional career, they like to brag and blab, and that creates conflict, but I see you as my equal.’”
The complaint claims Doe repeatedly rejected Archuleta’s alleged attempt to hold her hand during that outing.
The employee and Archuleta had carpooled to the venue together, and on their drive back to the district office where she left her vehicle, Archuleta allegedly made inappropriate comments about her breasts.
After other uncomfortable incidents, according to the filing, Archuleta’s chief of staff Don Wilcox issued a verbal warning to the employee for “not communicating with the senator by phone.”
The aide, according to the filing, then told Wilcox about the alleged sexual harassment, and that she was “hesitant to communicate with the senator because she did not want to give him the wrong impression.” The complaint alleges Wilcox took no action in response to the concerns raised.
The employee filed a complaint with the Legislature’s Workplace Conduct Unit, which was set up in response to the #MeToo Movement as an independent investigative body to enforce employment rules in the Capitol. It contacted the employee in June 2020 regarding her claims. The aide said she was willing to participate in the investigation, according to the filing.
The lawsuit, however, alleges the Workplace Conduct Unit “failed to carry out in a timely manner the very objective that formed its founding” before the staffer decided to resign.
“Seeing her career derailed after 14 and a half years at this level is a very sad thing to see,” Shegerian said. “It’s just unfortunate that she has paid the price of losing her career.”
Archuleta also said that he had participated in the internal investigation, but that the lawsuit “manufactures a whole new layer of gratuitous allegations” not previously raised during the probe.
Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, a Democrat, said in a statement that the Senate Rules Committee had been made aware of “some — but not all — of the allegations in this case,” which were referred to the Workplace Conduct Unit for review. Atkins said because the lawsuit was filed before the investigation was completed, the probe is now on hold.
“I treat any allegations of this nature and severity with the utmost gravity,” Atkins said. “They are troubling, to say the least. This legislative body is built on a foundation of mutual respect and integrity and we have worked tirelessly in recent years to foster a safe, diverse and respectful work environment with zero tolerance for harassment or discrimination. We also fiercely uphold the right of our employees to make their voices heard without bias or retaliation. Obviously, this is a serious matter — and the Senate will continue to take it extremely seriously.”
