Ex-mayor Bob Filner faces sexual harassment suit from 2nd city worker
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SAN DIEGO -- A second city employee has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against ex-Mayor Bob Filner.
The allegations of Stacy McKenzie, 50, a manager in the Park and Recreation Department, are similar to those made by more than 20 women during the frenzied six weeks that led to Filner’s Aug. 30 resignation.
McKenzie accuses Filner of “placing her in a headlock, rubbing his body against hers, rubbing his elbow against her breasts, [and] rubbing her arm” after asking for a date.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges two other city employees witnessed the incident at a public event in April at the De Anza Cove on Mission Bay.
McKenzie’s “dignity was stolen by the mayor at a public event,” said her attorney, Daniel Gilleon. The lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages, was filed in San Diego County Superior Court.
The scandal that drove Filner from office began in July when his former director of communication, Irene McCormack Jackson, filed a harassment lawsuit. That suit is set for a hearing next month.
On Monday, the 71-year-old Filner was formally sentenced to three months of home confinement and a reduction in his city pension after pleading guilty to felony false imprisonment and two misdemeanor battery counts, all involving mistreatment of women.
As part of the McKenzie lawsuit, Gilleon ordered an animation video, complete with audio, showing the alleged contact between his client and Filner.
“Sexual harassment usually occurs behind closed doors, when no cameras around,” Gilleon said. “We hope that the employers out there who regularly sexually harass their employees with impunity will think twice when they realize their actions may end up on a screen in front a jury someday, in the form of an animation.”
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