‘Get an attorney’: Taking on sexual harassment in the California Legislature in 2021

To hear the entire conversation, please click the California Nation player above.

On March 20, The Sacramento Bee’s Hannah Wiley broke a story about a new lawsuit filed against state Sen. Bob Archuleta, D-Pico Rivera, by a woman who formerly worked for him.

The lawsuit alleges she faced discrimination and retaliation after refusing the 75-year-old legislator’s advances. It claims she had “no choice but to resign because of her intolerable working environment.” Archuleta called the allegations “categorically false.”

The lawsuit identified the former staffer only as “Jane Doe.” Within days, however, a small publication in Southern California posted a story that claimed to reveal the woman’s identity. It seemed like a move right out of the era before the #MeToo movement: An attempt to intimidate a woman for speaking out against a powerful man.

“In case some of y’all trying to plant hit pieces on victims in the press forgot to read the rules…,” tweeted Samantha Corbin, referring to new California Democratic Party rules designed to prevent retaliatory actions against people who report abuse.

During the rise of the #MeToo movement in 2017, Corbin co-founded #WeSaidEnough, an organization designed to give voice to victims of sexual harassment and misconduct in the California state Capitol.

For the latest episode of The Sacramento Bee’s California Nation podcast, I interviewed Corbin, along with fellow #WeSaidEnough co-founders Adama Iwu and Alicia Lewis, about whether things have really changed in the Capitol in the years since #MeToo.

The rise of #MeToo and #WeSaidEnough forced the Legislature to confront its endemic culture of sexual misconduct and abuse. Several legislators and staffers resigned in the face of allegations.

Despite promises that things would change, however, these #WeSaidEnough leaders said the State Legislature continues to fall short.

“Some of the historical challenges in addressing these issues seem to persist ... whether that is in terms of folks’ comfort in going to the system to levy complaints [or] the process itself — and if it is, in fact, independent and fair,” Corbin said.

“So much time and effort went into conversations in the Capitol community, so many women and men, people of color really poured out their hearts talking about some of the discrimination, the abuse, sexual assaults that have happened around the Capitol,” Iwu said. “We’ve done so much. There’s been so much pain, but has there really been any change? And it’s frustrating.”

In 2019, the Legislature created the Workplace Conduct Unit, a section of the non-partisan Office of the Legislative Counsel that’s charged with investigating misconduct claims. But the investigative arm has disappointed, said Iwu, calling it a “black hole” where complaints disappear.

Despite the supposed progress and creation of new systems to report abuse, all three women said the system continues to fail victims.

“Some of the really egregious things that we hear about — because people reach out to us and tell us — we find out that those went nowhere, they were told they weren’t valid cases,” Iwu said. “Or we find out later that there’s a lawsuit because someone tried to use the system and got absolutely nowhere.”

“It’s really just been disheartening to see, after all this time, this is where we’ve landed ... is a system that’s just ... brushing folks under the rug, not giving them solutions or even a timeline of when to expect an outcome or something that they’ve come forward with,” Lewis said.

All three said the system for reporting and investigating claims needs more transparency in order to be credible. They pointed to the California state auditor’s office as a model for a state institution that issues regular, detailed reports on problems in government.

But with the Legislature unlikely to act, further reform may require voter approval.

“Unless the Legislature is going to do it, it all has to be on the ballot,” Lewis said.

Until then, said #WeSaidEnough’s co-founders, victims of misconduct should first seek counseling to make sure they’re mentally prepared for the challenge of reporting abuse. The next step: Hire a good lawyer.

To hear the entire conversation, click the player at the top of this story.

This story was originally published March 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘Get an attorney’: Taking on sexual harassment in the California Legislature in 2021."