San Mateo County pays $8 million to settle sexual harassment lawsuit by former SWAT team member

San Mateo County has reached an $8 million settlement with a former deputy sheriff and SWAT team member. The former deputy sheriff and SWAT team member filed a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit in 2022, claiming she was sexually assaulted by a former SWAT team leader and discriminated against by the department for years.

Carryn Barker’s attorneys, Zak Franklin and Julianna Zalinski, said in a statement Friday that the agreement was reached ahead of a September trial date at which a judge was expected to decide whether Franklin can question San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus about her possible role in the alleged harassment. A department spokesman said the sheriff had no knowledge of the alleged harassment and was not sheriff at the time it allegedly occurred.

Barker’s lawyers said that during the nearly two-year legal battle, documents and testimony from 21 current and former sheriff’s office employees showed that Barker – who they said is a UC Berkeley graduate, Medal of Honor recipient and only the second woman to qualify for the county’s SWAT team – was sexually harassed by her SWAT team supervisor, Andre Moniot.

Barker alleged the harassment and discrimination began shortly after Barker joined the SWAT team in 2018 and included Moniot frequently making vulgar comments about Barker’s body, telling Barker and others that he wanted to have sex with her, instructing Barker to wear provocative clothing during team training, touching Barker inappropriately, requiring Barker to drive to and from SWAT events alone with him, and finally physically assaulting Barker at a SWAT team meeting in October 2021.

Barker’s lawyers said sheriff’s office employees testified that they reported Moniot’s sexual harassment of Barker to several high-ranking officials in the department, but they did nothing to investigate the allegations or protect Barker until she filed the lawsuit.

The lawyers also said that testimony showed that in early 2021 – several months before Moniot allegedly sexually abused Barker – at least five senior officials knew about Moniot’s sexually harassing behavior on Barker but failed to intervene.

They said Moniot testified that he would not have sexually harassed Barker if someone in a leadership position had told him that Barker and others had reported the sexual harassment to him.

Barker’s lawyers said the department did not investigate the allegations until a retiring senior official notified the Internal Affairs Division in August 2022.

Gretchen Spiker, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said the department was “aware of the settlement related to incidents that occurred years ago under the previous sheriff.”

“Sheriff Corpus is committed to improving the culture of the Sheriff’s Office by prioritizing accountability and implementing higher standards – setting the tone that misconduct will not be tolerated under her watch,” Spiker said. “Because this is a personnel matter, we cannot provide any further comment.”

Barker took a leave of absence from the SWAT team in September 2022 to avoid attending the same SWAT team event where Moniot allegedly assaulted her the previous year and which Moniot was scheduled to attend this year.

Barker resigned from the SWAT team in November 2022 after the county still did nothing to protect Barker from Moniot, according to Barker’s attorneys, the same month she filed her lawsuit.

Barker’s lawyers said that when the lawsuit became public, members of the SWAT team threatened to resign if Moniot was not immediately placed on leave. They also said that other women who allegedly were harassed by men in the sheriff’s office also contacted Barker and her lawyers to share their own experiences of sexual harassment and discrimination.

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