Adventures of California's pro-Armenian senator: Mendoza resigns amid harassment allegations
Sen. Tony Mendoza resigned from office Thursday as his colleagues considered an unprecedented vote to expel him.
His decision came days after the Senate publicly released the findings of a two-month investigation that concluded Mendoza, D-Artesia, “more likely than not” engaged in a pattern of unwanted advances and sexually suggestive behavior toward six women, including four subordinates, over the last decade, The Sacramento Bee reports.
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León drafted Senate Resolution 85, which cited the house’s zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy and the results of the investigation as grounds to expel Mendoza, for a vote on the floor on Thursday after Republicans and Democrats met privately to discuss action against Mendoza. No lawmaker has ever been suspended or expelled for sexual harassment in California state history.
As closed-door meetings dragged on, Mendoza resigned.
“I shall resign my position as Senator with immediate effect as it is clear that Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León will not rest until he has my head on a platter to convince the Me Too Movement of his ‘sincerity’ in supporting the Me Too cause,” Mendoza wrote in a resignation letter he sent his colleagues on Thursday.
The Sacramento Bee reported sexual misconduct and harassment allegations against Mendoza last fall involving three former employees over the last 10 years.
Sources alleged that Mendoza made unwanted advances on a 23-year-old Sacramento State fellow working in his office and twice invited her to his home to go over her résumé for a full-time position last year. The Senate investigation found that he likely had no intention of offering her the job.
A second woman came forward and alleged that Mendoza behaved inappropriately toward her when she attended the 2008 California Democratic Party state convention at the invitation of his district office. Jennifer Kwart, then 19, alleges that Mendoza picked her up from the airport alone and drove her back to a hotel suite with an adjoining room, where he suggested they drink from the mini-bar. His comments made her feel uncomfortable, and she said she faked a family emergency to book an early flight home.
A third woman, Haley Myers, came forward days later and said she complained to human resources in the Assembly in 2010 that Mendoza engaged in behavior that she considers sexual harassment when she worked as a legislative aide for him in Sacramento.
The Senate responded by hiring two law firms, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Van Dermyden Maddux, to investigate the allegations against Mendoza and all future complaints involving lawmakers and staff members, which were previously handled by employees of the Senate Rules Committee.
The investigation, which wrapped up last week, concluded that Mendoza “more likely than not” engaged in “unwanted flirtatious or sexually suggestive behavior” toward the three women The Bee wrote about and three others since 2007. Investigators found that Mendoza likely invited an employee to share a room with him in Hawaii in 2007, invited home a different fellow in another legislator’s office and behaved inappropriately toward a lobbyist in 2015.
“Colleagues, it’s my duty as president of this body to say that we owe every employee that basic guarantee that we as an institution will not tolerate harassment nor sweep it under the rug when it is discovered,” de León said in a floor speech announcing the resignation. “We owe every employee a complete and full investigation into any violation of our zero tolerance harassment policy. Our independent team did just that.”
Mendoza joins Assemblymen Raul Bocanegra and Matt Dababneh, both Democrats from Los Angeles, who resigned from office in light of sexual harassment and assault allegations against them last year.
News.Az
Similar news
