A San Diego Superior Court judge on Friday ruled against forcing an ex-Metropolitan Transit System staffer who accused ex-Chair Nathan Fletcher of sexual assault and harassment to cover the agency’s more than $775,000 in legal fees and costs.
We broke the news this week that MTS sought to force Grecia Figueroa to pay up months after Judge Matthew C. Braner in August 2025 dismissed Figueroa’s case against MTS, ruling that her firing was based on performance issues. Braner also later threw out the sexual harassment case against Fletcher because Figueroa had deleted evidence detrimental to her claims.
But Figueroa is appealing, and Braner ruled Friday that her appeal means it’s too early to force her to pay up. He also noted in a more detailed tentative ruling Thursday that he’d likely deny the request anyway if he decided to hear it now. State law explains that fees and costs shouldn’t be awarded unless a judge finds “the action was frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless” and Braner wrote that he didn’t find Figueroa’s claims clearly met those definitions.
Nadia Bermudez, who is representing MTS, didn’t argue against Braner’s conclusion at a Friday hearing and said MTS would wait for an appeal decision before raising the fee issue again.
Braner said the court would follow that course and then made a joke that didn’t seem to register that way with Bermudez.
“I took a look at your bill,” Braner said. “Remind me to hire you when I want to go into serious debt.”
As Bermudez started to respond, Braner told her that was a joke.