The state unit that investigates discrimination, harassment and retaliation complaints involving members of the Legislature is seeking to be dismissed as a defendant in a woman’s lawsuit that also alleges 78-year-old state Sen. Bob Archuleta sexually harassed her when she worked for him as a district director.
The woman is identified only as Jane Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, which also names as defendants the state Workplace Conduct Unit, the Senate Rules Committee and Don Wilcox, Archuleta’s chief of staff. She alleges whistleblower retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and various state Labor Code violations.
In court papers filed Tuesday with Judge Joseph Lipner, WCU attorneys maintain the unit is not liable for the lone cause of action filed against it alleging failure to prevent discrimination. The WCU did not jointly employ Doe as she alleges, according to the WCU attorneys’ court papers, nor did it exercise control over her employment conditions, the same attorneys state. A hearing on the dismissal motion is scheduled for Jan. 30.
The WCU is a division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau and was created to provide advice and investigation services to the Legislature related to workplace misconduct.
The plaintiff was hired by the state Senate to be the district director in Archuleta’s Norwalk office when he represented the 32nd District and her salary was paid by the state Senate staff, not the WCU, the unit lawyers maintain. Archuleta now represents the 30th District.
Doe was supervised by Archuleta and Wilcox, the WCU attorneys further argue in their court papers.
According to Doe’s suit, although Archuleta is nearly 40 years older than her and is married with children, the senator “did not hold back his desire for Doe, making unwanted romantic propositions while sharing sordid details of love affairs.”
Archuleta, who served on the Pico Rivera City Council before being elected to the state Senate in 2018, released a statement Friday calling the allegations “completely and categorically false.”
“My entire career, I have supported the right of every Californian to feel safe, valued and protected in the workplace,” the statement read. “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.”
Doe maintains Archuleta sought her out in February 2019 “under the guise of prospective employment” in the senator’s office.
Archuleta told Doe to keep their meeting confidential and asked her for her resume before subsequently hiring her, according to the plaintiff, who further alleges she openly complained of unwanted sexual advances and touching by Archuleta, including him grabbing her arm in public, as well as the way she was treated in the office because she was a woman.
The suit criticizes the role of the WCU, stating that although the unit was lauded as a first of its kind, it “failed to carry out in a timely manner the very objective that formed its founding: to conduct an independent investigation of her claims.”