Court OKs CHP officer’s suit involving 2nd District justice

A black female California Highway Patrol officer can move forward with her sexual and racial harassment claims against the state, including allegations that appellate Justice Jeffrey W. Johnson sexually harassed and touched her without her consent, a judge ruled this week.

Tatiana Sauquillo was assigned to work as a driver for the 2nd District Court of Appeal, where Johnson is a Justice in Division One, between 2013 and 2016. She claims Johnson propositioned her for sex and touched her inappropriately on several occasions in Sauquillo v. California Highway Patrol, 19STCV24910 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 17, 2019).

She also claimed her superiors made numerous sexual and racist comments when she was working for other divisions of the CHP between 2009 and 2012. These included allegedly propositioning her for sex and making comments about her race, Sauquillo's lawsuit says. She made claims under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and the California Constitution.

In a Nov. 12 motion, attorneys with the state Department of Justice argued all four of Sauquillo's claims should be dismissed. They said three of her causes improperly combined claims relating to gender and race harassment.

In her Tuesday ruling, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michelle W. Court allowed those three claims to go forward. Court noted the high bar to sustain a demurrer.

"Plaintiff's alleged experiences of harassment and discrimination cannot be severed into two distinct categories for race and sex," Court wrote.

Court also dismissed a motion to strike, writing, "Defendant has not presented any showing that the allegations set forth ... are irrelevant or mere background; rather they are supported by precedent interpreting a [Fair Employment and Housing Act] claim for hostile work environment."

Her attorneys did not contest the demurrer on her third cause of action, sex discrimination under the California Constitution, which Court sustained without leave to amend. Sauquillo is represented by Raquelle A. de la Rocha and Teri A. Gibbs with the Bloom Firm -- the Woodland Hills firm run by celebrity attorney Lisa Bloom.

The harassment Sauquillo endured had to do with both her gender and her race, de la Rocha said, and caused her to be subjected to behavior neither a white woman nor a black man would have likely experienced.

"It's actually a very interesting issue that hasn't been dealt with [by the courts]," de la Rocha said. "It's called the intersectionality of race and gender."

According to Sauquillo's complaint, she transferred into the Judicial Protection Section in order to get away from the earlier harassment at the CHP. She ended up as a driver for Johnson.

In January, the Commission on Judicial Performance opened an inquiry into the justice, who has been in his job since 2009. The third set of amended charges against Johnson submitted by the CJP in June contain 10 charges. Several women have claimed Johnson groped, propositioned or exposed himself to them. Some of these claims were made by another 2nd District justice, Victoria G. Chaney.

The CJP has held a series of hearings over the allegations against Johnson. During one hearing Johnson burst into tears and accused some of the 17 women making claims against him of lying.

The special masters who conducted the hearing are expected to make their recommendations early in the new year.

Sauquillo's claims are also detailed in counts two and 10 of the CJP's charges. She alleged Johnson made sexual comments to her on at least four occasions, including saying he would like to "bend her over." On one of these occasions, she said, Johnson put his hand on her thigh. Johnson also allegedly referred to female justices as "nasty ass bitches" in front of Sauquillo and another officer.

Sauquillo testified against Johnson in a CJP hearing on Aug. 13. She also said he made inappropriate comments on many occasions, not just the ones detailed in the official CJP charges, and that she did not speak out until other women had also come forward because she feared retaliation.

At the hearing, she also said she transferred again within the CHP in 2016 to get away from Johnson. But according to her complaint, harassment continued. She alleges that in 2017 she was pressured into coming back early from maternity leave.