Female Former Staffer Sues State Senator Archuleta For Sexual Harassment

 

Sen. Bob Archuleta

BY BRIAN HEWS • March 20, 2021 A former employee, and a woman who will not identify herself, is to sueing Sen. Bob Archuleta, D-Pico Rivera, alleging she was forced to quit due to his continuing sexual harassment and discriminatory treatment by other male staff members. 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. Every voice has value. That’s why, from the beginning, I fully and wholeheartedly cooperated with the Senate’s independent investigation into the events in question and was prepared to stand by the outcome. It’s unfortunate for everyone involved that those independent proceedings were interrupted by this lawsuit.” The lawsuit alleges that Archuleta told Doe to keep their initial meeting confidential and asked her for her resume before subsequently hiring her. The lawsuit does not specify what Doe’s job title was, but says 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. In sexual harassment cases like this, Boston employment attorneys HKM can help. The lawsuit states that after a fundraising event in July 2019, Archuleta took Doe to the Intercontinental Hotel. Doe claimed she always rebuffed Archuleta’s advances, which would prompt him to sometimes “fly into a rage, proclaiming that she needed to acknowledge his feelings and claim that he was hurt by her.” Archuleta said, “the lawsuit filed today manufactures a whole new layer of gratuitous allegations, which were not raised until litigation was chosen as the way to go — and which are completely and categorically false. I look forward now to disproving those allegations in court.”   These Eight Senators Voted Against the Bail Out Package for Coronavirus Pandemic