Most if not all the electronic communications between former County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher and former Metropolitan Transit System public information officer, Grecia Figueroa happened over Instagram direct messages and now Fletcher’s and Figueroa’s attorneys are fighting over a subpoena to Instagram’s parent company Meta.
Figueroa accused Fletcher, who was also the chairman of MTS, of sexually harassing and assaulting her before MTS officials abruptly fired her in February. Her initial complaint is filled with Instagram direct messages that she says demonstrate how he “stalked” her. But his attorneys claim the full record of their interactions would tell a different story. Unfortunately, he deleted them.
The news: In July, they served Meta with a subpoena for all Figueroa’s records. Now Figueroa’s attorneys have filed a formal motion to quash the subpoena claiming it’s overly broad and would include private metadata including her location, passwords and other unnecessary information. They say the attorneys all agreed to a way to limit the scope of the subpoena but Fletcher’s attorneys did not redo the subpoena and so now they need to quash it.
In early August, the fight brewed over email after one of Fletcher’s attorneys offered a compromise where he would instruct Meta not to produce any geographic, password or user information.
“There is no reasonable basis to warrant an outright withdrawal of the subpoena or any further delay in the production of the requested information on the grounds you’ve articulated,” wrote Sean McKaveney, from the firm Fisher and Phillips, which is representing Fletcher.
Figueroa has new attorneys from the Pride Law Firm. They joined the original plaintiff’s attorney, Zach Schumacher.
“We are not confident that your proposed letter, without having amended the subpoena itself, will adequately safeguard Plaintiff’s rights. We will, therefore, have no choice but to formally object to the subpoena,” wrote Zachary Freire-Aviña, a senior associate at Pride.
The motion to quash the subpoena is here.
The big questions: Whether Fletcher had “consensual interactions” with Figueroa as he said versus her claim that it was abusive and violent is a major issue. But nobody denies that he was in a position of authority over her.
The most significant question remains why she was fired Feb. 6. MTS claims it was for performance reasons but has not released any information yet from a formal investigation it commissioned into the matter.
Figueroa claims it was a shock and was not preceded by any performance improvement plan or warnings about performance issues. She later amended her complaint to include the information that MTS officials offered her a $10,000 severance a day after her firing, with various conditions, to which she refused to agree.
Hopefully Fletcher and his wife will jump into a wood chipper and then we won’t have to hear about them anymore. He is a worthless waste of time (and apparently just like Bob Filner) and it is a shame he was not cremated when someone attempted to torch his house a while back.
You sound like someone who was never picked up from daycare.
Should make great theater if they can get the salacious messages from Fletch the Letch. Loretta faces a touch choice, does she have her team break his legs or hers?
Larry so impressed with your wordsmith talents. And with your legislative and judicial careers! Mike Schaefer
Fletcher finally got caught! The guy has always been a scumbag. Ruined his first family as well.
Maybe Fletch the Letch can get a cell with Harvey Weinstein, surely union boss Loretta can arrange that.
Nathan and Gavin go way back. Such political-pal conversation when together. Suspect Gavin forgot his name. Gavin smart! (Nathan earned that. )
I gave Nathan a good contribution his first election. He never thanked me! Early Alzheimers? I asked for it back!
Mike Schaefer