CA Assembly aide claims firing was retaliation for reporting bribery, harassment
A recently fired press secretary for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas has accused the Hollister Democrat of retaliating against her for accusing another aide of sexual harassment and filing unethical conduct complaints against Rivas and his brother, political strategist Rick Rivas, according to a lawsuit obtained by The Sacramento Bee.
Cynthia Moreno was fired last month after investigators said she had repeatedly made inappropriate, sexually-charged comments to colleagues, according to an Aug. 8 letter from Assembly chief administrator Lia Lopez and a heavily redacted complaint released by the Legislature’s Workplace Conduct Unit.
Moreno denied making the remarks and called them “slander” at the time. Her attorney, Ognian Gavrilov, accused both Rivas brothers of violating her First Amendment rights and committing several acts of bribery under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which is used to prosecute organized crime.
In the 21-page complaint, first reported by KCRA, Gavrilov said Moreno filed complaints with Liz Snow, Rivas’ chief of staff, in January and with the WCU in February, accusing the speaker and his brother of allowing campaign staff to direct government staff and using campaign funds for news conferences led by Nick Miller, the speaker’s communications director.
Rivas campaign spokesperson Elizabeth Ashford said the events Moreno referred were state-sponsored and did not violate California law dictating that campaign staff cannot direct state staff to work on campaign-side events.
Rick Rivas, California vice president for the American Beverage Association, is a close confidant and adviser to his brother, who was first elected speaker in July 2023, the month Moreno joined the office.
Moreno referred a request for comment to Gavrilov, who did not immediately respond.
Ashford said she had not officially received the lawsuit as of Wednesday morning, which Gavrilov filed Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court.
“Rivas’ campaign denies all allegations, calling Moreno’s complaints false, defamatory and meritless,” she said.
‘Bribery and influence-peddling’
Moreno said the Rivas brothers committed “bribery“ and “influence peddling,” and violated the California Political Reform Act by funneling money to Garnett Lake, Rick Rivas’ consulting firm, to sway his brother on certain legislation.
One instance Moreno cited was Assembly Constitutional Amendment 3, a recent amendment to help University of California staff access homeownership assistance programs. Moreno said Robert Rivas shelved the bill after speaking to his brother, who acted as an unregistered lobbyist on behalf of Friends of the University, a political action committee that opposed the amendment.
Campaign finance records show the PAC paid Rick Rivas $95,000 last year for campaign consulting services. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
Another instance Moreno cited was the recently passed Senate Bill 371, which will allow rideshare drivers a path to unionize after years of intense opposition from Uber and Lyft. Moreno said the speaker had received donations from both companies, and Govern for California, a PAC that Rick Rivas formerly oversaw.
Speaker Rivas supported the deal, along with Senate President pro Tem Mike McGuire and Gov. Gavin Newsom, which lowers the amount of minimum insurance companies and their drivers must carry, an amendment the Legislature said was necessary to ensure rides remained affordable.
In exchange, the Legislature is expected to pass a complimentary bill allowing independent contractors to unionize, a compromise Moreno said Rick Rivas was key in orchestrating for his and his brother’s gain.
“The ultimate irony of Speaker Robert Rivas’s actions is that while accusing Ms. Moreno of unfounded sexual harassment claims, he orchestrated amendments to SB 371 that would allow rideshare companies like Uber to avoid meaningful liability for crimes by their drivers like sexual assault, even while the company is defending over 2,300 sexual assault lawsuits,” Gavrilov’s complaint read.
Uber also distanced itself from Moreno’s claims saying, in part, “This lawsuit is not about Uber, despite the attempt to drag us into it.”
“Any suggestion otherwise is a dishonest effort to entangle Uber in an unrelated dispute,” an Uber spokesperson said Thursday.
The company also said SB371 would “modernize” insurance rules specific to uninsured and underinsured drivers. “It has nothing to do with sexual assault in any way.”
In addition, Moreno said she filed two sexual harassment complaints in May 2024 and July 2024 to Miller naming Spencer Hagaman, a former Rivas aide. She claimed the WCU substantiated her complaint, but the Speaker retaliated by stripping of her job duties and gave Hagaman several raises before he left the office.
Rick Rivas then “denied Ms. Moreno a standard tenure-based pay raise; and, on August 6, 2025, terminated her employment,” according to Gavrilov’s filing.
Hagaman said Moreno’s claims that the Legislature substantiated her complaint against him was untrue.
“I was disappointed to learn of Ms Moreno’s inaccurate public claims about me,” Hagaman said in a statement to The Bee late Wednesday. “The Workplace Conduct Unit conducted a thorough investigation of Ms. Moreno’s allegations of discrimination. They determined that there were zero violations of the Legislature’s Policy on Appropriate Workplace Conduct and that the claims of discrimination were unsubstantiated.”
Hagaman also said that Moreno “misrepresents the timeline of my promotion and my compensation record,” adding that he “received only one raise in my time in the Speaker’s Office.”
“I urge Ms. Moreno to retract her false claims about me. If she does not, I am committed to seeking every legal avenue available at my disposal to remedy the situation.”
Lopez said in a statement that the WCU had investigated the sexual harassment complaint against Moreno, which the speaker recused himself from, and that the Assembly stood by its decision to fire Moreno.
“This complaint is a total fabrication, and I am confident that Ms. Moreno’s claims regarding ‘unethical or illegal practices’ by Speaker Rivas or his brother and complaints about current Assembly employees will be disproven in a court of law,” she said in an email.
Rivas spokesperson: ‘Vast conspiracy theories’
Miller referred a request for comment to Ashford, who called Moreno’s accusations “false” and “defamatory.”
Ashford said the speaker had recused himself from the Legislature’s investigation, and denied that Rick Rivas had played any role in Moreno’s Aug. 6 firing or her employment in his brother’s office.
“The investigation into Ms. Moreno’s actions and the decision to terminate her was handled entirely by the independent Workplace Conduct Unit,” she said in a statement.
“The vast conspiracy theories included in this filing are absolutely false,” Ashford said. “Ms. Moreno’s long history of lawsuits speaks for itself, and any court will see this for what it is: an attempt by a former employee to force a payout. We will fight these false and defamatory claims aggressively, and we are confident they will be seen for what they are: absolutely meritless.”
Moreno is seeking more than $35,000, claiming lost wages and benefits and reputational harm, and is asking for a jury trial. In addition to the Rivas brothers, the suit also names the Assembly and 10 unnamed John Doe individuals as defendants.
This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 8:09 AM with the headline "CA Assembly aide claims firing was retaliation for reporting bribery, harassment."
