Sacramento real estate company owner accused of sexual battery files countersuit
Ethan G. Conrad, the head of a prominent Northern California real estate company, has filed a countersuit in Sacramento County alleging that a woman accusing him of sexually assaulting her illegally recorded him in private conversations.
Camille Vasquez, a member of Conrad’s legal team, alleges in the cross-complaint filed April 3 in Sacramento Superior Court that the woman suing Conrad recorded him last year without his knowledge or consent in an attempt “to obtain damaging and compromising information” about Conrad.
“This is a case about an opportunist ... who is executing a vendetta against Mr. Conrad that is motivated by jealousy, resentment, and greed,” Vasquez said in the countersuit.
The plaintiff suing Conrad is identified as “Jamie Doe” in filed court documents. The woman was seeking a job with Conrad’s company early last year, and her Jan. 6 lawsuit alleges Conrad committed sexual battery and sexual harassment.
Her lawsuit also alleges Conrad inflicted emotional distress and violated business and professional standards during four job interviews over the past year. This was the third lawsuit filed in three months on behalf of women accusing Conrad of committing sexual battery. All three lawsuits are still pending.
Conrad has said the allegations in the three lawsuits are false. In a written statement in January, he said Jamie Doe’s lawsuit had “baseless claims.”
“Mr. Conrad is a well-established businessman in Sacramento. As a major figure in the region’s real estate industry, Mr. Conrad is known to be a man of significant financial means,” Vasquez argued in the countersuit. “In other words, he is the perfect target for a predator like Jamie Doe.”
Conrad’s Sacramento-based company, Ethan Conrad Properties, has properties across the region, including the Renaissance Tower, one of Sacramento’s tallest buildings, which he won with a $21 million auction bid in October.
California recording law
Ognian Gavrilov, the Sacramento-based attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jamie Doe, said his office will file an anti-SLAAP motion asking the court to dismiss Conrad’s countersuit. The SLAPP acronym stands for strategic lawsuits against public participation or to intimidate or silence criticism.
Gavrilov said Conrad’s countersuit “appears more like a public relations maneuver,” than an appropriate legal argument.
“If you can sue people for suing you, then you wouldn’t be able to sue anybody,” Gavrilov told The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday. “This is an attempt to put pressure on the victim. These are bullying tactics against the victim.”
The Sacramento Business Journal was the first on Monday to report news about Conrad’s countersuit.
California law makes it illegal to record a private conversation if everyone involved has not given their consent. But there are exceptions to that law that include obtaining evidence of extortion, kidnapping, bribery, any felony involving violence against the person and human trafficking.
Gavrilov said any activity done to support his client’s lawsuit against Conrad was in compliance with state law based on his understanding of the facts, but he “didn’t want to litigate this in the media.”
On Tuesday, Conrad declined to make any comments about his filed countersuit. But he did reiterate his defense.
“The only thing I will say is that as more information comes out on these three cases, you and everyone else will see that definitively there’s no validity at all to any of the allegations which are all simply extortion attempts which will fail,” Conrad said in an email to The Bee.
Johnny Depp’s trial lawyers
Vasquez and Samuel Moniz, another member of Conrad’s legal defense team, were among the attorneys who represented movie star Johnny Depp who sued his ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation. Vasquez and Moniz were part of Depp’s five-lawyer trial team who were all hired as partners in August by Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, the law firm Conrad hired earlier this year to defend him in the sexual battery lawsuits filed by the three women.
Heard wrote an opinion article published in the Washington Post, alleging she was a domestic abuse victim but did not include Depp’s name in the article, the BBC reported. Depp denied abusing Heard. After the televised trial, the jury awarded Depp $15 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Conrad’s attorney said in the countersuit that he has known Jamie Doe for the better part of a decade and periodically dated each other. Vasquez said the intermittent dating relationship was dormant until 2023, and Jamie Doe “grew deeply angry and resentful” when it did not progress to an exclusive and serious relationship.
Vasquez argued that Conrad “did not engage in any nonconsensual sexual conduct with Jamie Doe, who maintained a friendly and openly sexualized attitude toward Conrad captured in the “illegal recording” during a private dinner of takeout food.
Jamie Doe started recording audio on her smartphone before entering Conrad’s office building, according to the countersuit, and she kept recording as they ate dinner alone in a conference room after business hours as she sought career advice from him.
Vasquez argued that Jamie Doe continued to push for job at Conrad’s real estate company, even after learning about the two sexual battery lawsuits filed late last year against Conrad. The attorney said two days after learning Conrad’s company was hiring someone else, Jamie Doe accused the real estate developer of sexual misconduct.
“Mr. Conrad did not seek out this legal battle, and wishes it were not necessary. He bears no ill will toward Jamie Doe,” Vasquez said in the countersuit. “But Jamie Doe’s actions have left him no choice but to defend himself and put an end to her attempts to exact revenge and a financial windfall by making knowingly-false allegations.”
