Amy Lepine, the Democratic lawyer who ran against incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre in June’s primary election and once worked for him has voluntarily dropped a lawsuit she brought against Aguirre for sexual harassment and wrongful termination.
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| Mike Aguirre and Amy Lepine |
Lepine, who made the lawsuit a central theme of her election campaign, told me earlier this afternoon that she couldn’t comment on the case because she hadn’t yet seen a copy of the settlement agreement.
That settlement agreement, which was sent out by Aguirre’s office this afternoon, states that neither Aguirre, nor the City Attorney’s Office, will pay Lepine anything in the settlement of the suit.
Lepine sued Aguirre after she worked at the City Attorney’s office for less than a year in 2006. In her complaint, she claimed the office under Aguirre’s leadership was “a work environment, which encouraged the debasement and marginalization of women.”
Lepine raised the lawsuit several times throughout the run-up to June’s primary election, mentioning it in debates and candidate’s forums. The lawsuit itself led to questions about Lepine’s own legal conduct that were also raised during the campaign and which I wrote about in this story.
Aguirre said the fact that she has now dropped the suit is great news for him and the city.
“I’m happy that neither the City of San Diego nor the City Attorney had to pay any money in the settlement, and I’m happy that the case has been resolved without any finding of liability.”
Aguirre didn’t want to expand any further on how he feels about the sudden dropping of the suit, which comes a little more than a month after Lepine dropped out of the city attorney’s race.
“The facts speak for themselves,” he said.