California to pay $310,000 to former lawmaker’s employee who reported sexual harassment

Nearly two years after state Sen. Tony Mendoza resigned in the wake of a sexual harassment investigation, the California Senate agreed to a $310,000 lawsuit settlement with a former employee who reported his behavior.

Adriana Ruelas was one of three aides Mendoza fired in September 2017 as complaints were filed alleging he harassed a 23-year-old fellow working in his office to the Senate Rules Committee. Ruelas filed a complaint with the Legislature in January 2018 alleging retaliation.

The Sacramento Bee originally reported that Mendoza, D-Artesia, had invited the female fellow back to his home to review resumes after a downtown party and had allegedly “engaged in a pattern of inappropriate behavior” with the woman.

Sources at the time told The Bee that Mendoza also invited the fellow, who was described by colleagues as “smart, ambitious and eager to land a position in the Legislature,” to sleep at his hotel room during work trips.

The Senate Rules Committee launched an investigation into Mendoza in December 2017 and determined in February 2018 that Mendoza had likely conducted “unwanted flirtatious or sexually suggestive behavior” on six women. Mendoza resigned shortly thereafter and before the Senate could vote to censure him.

“I refuse to participate any further in the farcical ‘investigation’ against me that ignores the Senate’s own rules, invents processes, criteria and standards as needed, ignores due process and constitutional rights to self-defense all for the purpose of playing to election year politicking,” his resignation letter read. “I shall resign my position as Senator with immediate effect as it is clear that Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon will not rest until he has my head on a platter to convince the MeToo movement of his ‘sincerity’ in supporting the MeToo cause.”

His resignation marked an end to the sexual harassment investigation, but Ruelas’ retaliation claim was not validated by the probe. The investigative committee said the terminations were likely “unrelated to any complaint of sexual harassment.”

Ruelas sued in April 2018, repeating her claims.

The Los Angeles Times was the first to report the settlement on Thursday.

“The settlement is profoundly significant for my client. It took a lot of courage and she risked a lot to come forward and blow the whistle on sexual harassment,” Ruelas’ attorney Micha Star Liberty told The Sacramento Bee. “As a result, she lost her job, and faced what we have alleged to be defamatory criticism in the press.”

Ruelas now works as Democratic Assemblyman James Ramos’ chief of staff. Star Liberty said she thinks the litigation marks an important step toward making the California Capitol a safe environment “for any worker to come forward and report unlawful conduct” without fear of retribution.

Secretary of the Senate Erika Contreras confirmed on Thursday that the parties had reached an agreement.

“The Senate and former employee Adriana Ruelas have reached an amicable agreement on her dispute with the Senate, which is leftover from before the recent reform to our workplace conduct policy,” Contreras said in a statement. “We take all workplace misconduct allegations very seriously, and we have turned a corner in resolving claims such as these.”

Mendoza served in the state Assembly from 2006 to 2012. He was then elected in 2014 to the 32nd Senate District. He’s a former East Los Angeles elementary teacher and Artesia mayor. He has a wife and four children.

The allegations against Mendoza helped spark a #MeToo movement in the California Capitol. Democratic Assemblymen Raul Bocanegra and Matt Dababneh also resigned in 2017 after being accused of sexual harassment. Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas also resigned in 2017 before an investigation concluded to find he had likely sexually harassed staffers.

A coalition totaling nearly 150 women in California politics wrote a letter in October 2017 criticizing Capitol’s culture that supports “dehumanizing behavior by men with power in our workplaces.”

“Why didn’t we speak up? Sometimes out of fear. Sometimes out of shame. Often these men held our professional fates in their hands,” they wrote. “We’re done with this.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 12:12 PM.