State Senate settles lawsuit by woman who said she was raped by a staffer, then fired

SACRAMENTO -- The state Senate has settled a lawsuit by a woman who claimed she was raped by a senior legislative staffer and later fired.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge David I. Brown rejected a demurrer in September, allowing most of the claims by the unidentified plaintiff, who worked for the state Senate, to go forward. The parties filed a notice of a conditional settlement at the end of November.

The terms were not disclosed. Jane Doe v. California State Senate, 00232257 (Sac. Super. Ct., filed May 2, 2018).

"My client is extremely pleased with the result and feels that the Senate, through this resolution, has acknowledged its mistakes," said the plaintiff's attorney, Micha Star Liberty of Liberty Law Office in Oakland. "It is our sincere hope that before a sexual assault victim is terminated in the future rather than accommodated the Legislature will think twice and endeavor to follow the law." In her complaint, the plaintiff said she was raped after a social event outside the Capitol by an unidentified Assembly staffer in 2016. This was reported to the Legislature the police. The man was not prosecuted due to a lack of witnesses but reportedly no longer works in the Legislature.

The plaintiff alleged she was denied accommodations to deal with the trauma of the attack and was fired on the grounds that her work had deteriorated. She sued for retaliation, discrimination and violations of the California Legislative Whistleblowers Protection Act.

The case is one of several related to sexual harassment in the Capitol that have found their way into Brown's law and motion court this year.

In this month alone, Brown gave the green light to two other cases to proceed. In one, he rejected the Senate's governmental immunity claims over a retaliation case brought by former legislative aide Adriana Ruelas, another Liberty client. Ruelas v. California State Senate, 00230185 (Sac. Super. Ct., filed April 3, 2018).

In the other, he allowed a defamation claim by former Assemblyman Matt Dababneh to go forward. Brown found claims lobbyist Pamela Lopez made in a press conference were not protected even though she had already made the same claims in a protected complaint to the Assembly. Dababneh v. Lopez, 00238699 (Sacramento Super. Ct., filed Aug. 14, 2018).

It is Senate policy to not comment on litigation.