Recent filings in a lawsuit against disgraced former Supervisor Nathan Fletcher shed new light on his relationship with ex-MTS employee Grecia Figueroa, as well as Figueroa’s firing.
Fletcher’s legal team released a batch of Instagram messages that appear to show some degree of a consensual online relationship. Among the new filings is also a letter from MTS officials to Figueroa detailing alleged performance issues that led to her firing.
Figueroa claimed last year that Fletcher sexually harassed and assaulted her. He dropped out of a race for the state senate and ultimately resigned his post as county supervisor. MTS officials also fired Figueroa. She claimed it was because of her relationship with Fletcher. Figueroa filed a lawsuit against Fletcher and MTS, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation. She claimed she felt obligated to reciprocate Fletcher’s advances because of his position of authority.
In one of the most shocking allegations of the lawsuit, Figueroa claimed Fletcher aggressively groped her and exposed her breasts in a conference room after a Dec. 1, 2022, MTS Executive Committee meeting.
Figueroa’s complaint included a screenshot of an Instagram message that Fletcher sent during the meeting, saying “come say hi.”
Fletcher’s team released the full exchange. Figueroa messaged Fletcher during the meeting:
GF: “Stop biting your nails!”
NF: “Too much tension : )”
GF: “Uhmmm… I was going to say something inappropriate… [laughing emoji] oh my mind…”
NF: “You can!!!”
GF: “Nooo… Noo. It’s too much. Are you leaving right after the meeting? Or staying a bit longer?”
NF: “Staying for a bit. Come say hi”
GF: “Let me know when you are alone”
Fletcher’s lawyer Sean L. McKaveney argues that Figueroa “manufactured a fictitious narrative designed to inflame the public against Mr. Fletcher and portray Ms. Figueroa as a ‘shocked, scared, and humiliated’ victim,” he wrote. “However, it is clear that she eagerly and aggressively pursued Mr. Fletcher’s companionship for several months.”
Figueroa’s lawyer said that Fletcher does not understand the nature of consent.
“Unfortunately, it is increasingly obvious that Mr. Fletcher and his defense team do not understand the nuance surrounding consent, including how consent can be withdrawn at any time and how each encounter requires consent,” Jessica Pride, Figueroa’s attorney, wrote in a statement to Voice of San Diego.
Figueroa’s team have compiled messages from Figueroa to one of her friends, which they say prove she felt harassed.
On Nov. 22, 2022, Figueroa messaged a friend about Fletcher going to a work event she was planning. The friend’s name was redacted from a letter obtained by Voice of San Diego.
GF: “OMG Omg. There’s an event I’m planning for next week, and it will involve me up on stage, live translating for the Transportation Secretary of Mendoza Argentina, and Nathan has been requested to be there. Oh God. I really really really hope he can’t make it.”
GF: “Fuck fuck”
GF: “I really hope he can’t go”
GF: “Just another day in my fucking life [whining emoji]”
Response: “Whoa”
Response: “Why don’t you want him to go”
GF: Can you talk
On Dec. 31, 2022, Figueroa messaged Fletcher to say happy birthday and called him a winner. He responded with, “Happy new year mi armor (sic.) Here is to a 2023 where all desires come true.”
On that date, according to her attorneys’ letter, she messaged a friend and wrote, “At least your life is a Rom com. I’m over here getting hit on my (sic) by boss’s boss on his anniversary day with his wife.”
MTS officials fired Figueroa on Feb. 6, around two months before her allegations against Fletcher became public. In Figueroa’s complaint, her lawyers wrote that MTS fired her at Fletcher’s direction “because she had been sexually harassed and assaulted by Fletcher and because she possessed information that could be damaging to both MTS and Defendant Fletcher.”
The new filings include MTS’s termination letter to Figueroa. The letter outlines performance concerns and examples of when she did not meet deadlines.
“Your shortcomings require that your supervisors spend a substantial amount of time double checking your work, correcting your errors, and directly managing your assignments,” reads the letter signed by Jeffery Stumbo, MTS chief human resources officer.
The letter also states that during a performance review in August 2022, management spoke to Figueroa about her performance issues and warned her that her job was in jeopardy.
In the weeks that followed Fletcher’s resignation, another woman accused him of improper behavior that occurred while she worked as an intern at his nonprofit Three Wise Men. The woman, who at the time was a student at UCSD, where Fletcher taught, had reported the interaction to the university’s Sexual Assault Resource Center. Fletcher has also denied this accusation.
In Figueroa’s telling, Fletcher stalked her on social media, sexually harassed her and sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions. She claimed she felt trapped and obligated to reciprocate his advances.
Fletcher’s legal team argues that Figueroa’s selective use of Instagram messages in the original lawsuit painted a “misleading and inflammatory narrative that falsely portrayed Ms. Figueroa as an un-consenting victim of sexual assault and battery.”
In one relatively early exchange, Fletcher asks Figueroa to tell him if he makes her uncomfortable.
NF: “If I say anything that makes you uncomfortable or inappropriate you promise to tell me?”
GF: “Of course. I promise”
GF: “I wouldn’t be communicating with you if I felt uncomfortable : )”
The new filings are part of an effort by Fletcher’s attorneys to quash some specific allegations in the lawsuit. Those include multiple mentions of Fletcher’s wife, former Assemblywoman and now-state labor leader Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, that Fletcher’s team argued were irrelevant and Figueroa’s characterization of settlement talks.
Superior Court Judge Matthew C. Braner is set to hear arguments for and against the motion by Fletcher’s attorneys on May 3.
Pride, Figueroa’s attorney, said the new messages change nothing about their claim.
“On many occasions, survivors may try to “pacify” their perpetrator while they themselves are trapped in a “fight or flight mode”, struggling to speak up, causing them extreme psychological distress,” Pride wrote. “Mr. Fletcher and his defense team make no attempt to uncover the whole truth, choosing instead to shame Ms. Figueroa and attempt to prematurely dismiss her claims.”
Lisa Halverstadt contributed to this story.
http://www.dannytri.com See our solutions for a great San Diego.
Makes you wonder if there ever even was a marriage of Fletch the Letch and Loretta the union boss. More like a marriage of beneficial interests and he can get his other benefits at the office.
Being unemployed is no fun. Google pays $167 in Hr USD. To help keep the money flowing while you look for a new job, jt governments offer unemployment protection to unemployed workers.
Go here…….. https://GooglePayMoney76.blogspot.com