City attorney employee says she was sexually harassed and assaulted at work – San Diego Union-Tribune

An unidentified woman who works as a victim assistance coordinator for the San Diego District Attorney’s Office has filed a lawsuit accusing the city of ignoring complaints that she was targeted, harassed and ultimately sexually assaulted by a public investigator.

The plaintiff, who also claimed to have been a victim of sexual abuse and human trafficking as a child, filed the 28-page lawsuit anonymously in San Diego Superior Court under the name Jane Doe.

The lawsuit names the City of San Diego and former City Attorney’s Office investigator Derek Diaz as defendants. Diaz was a longtime San Diego Police Department employee and has worked for City Attorney Mara Elliott since 2022.

According to the lawsuit, prosecutors hired Diaz months after his then-wife made similar allegations against him and sought a restraining order. Within weeks of his hiring, he began paying special attention to Doe at work, their lawsuit states.

“Diaz, a seasoned sex offender, identified Doe as a victim and began manipulating her, culminating in a series of sexual assaults inside and outside the prosecutor’s office,” the lawsuit states.

“After months of horrific abuse and despite threats to her safety, Doe reported Diaz’s sexual assault,” the complaint continues. “Instead of protecting Doe, the City failed to investigate or punish Diaz’s abuse and took a series of retaliatory actions against Doe.”

Specifically, the lawsuit accuses city officials of failing to investigate or punish Diaz’s case, but instead of launching an investigation into Doe because he protested the city’s inaction.

The city’s district attorney’s office said it does not comment on pending litigation. Diaz, who left office at the end of 2022, did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the allegations.

The lawsuit, filed in late May and first reported by CBS 8, accuses city officials of failing to protect the plaintiff from an officer they knew had a dubious past.

Doe says that not only did prosecutors hire Diaz months after his ex-wife’s allegations, but officials also knew that he had already used his position as a member of the San Diego Police Department’s anti-human trafficking task force to target vulnerable women.

“Sexual abuse is abhorrent in any context, but it is a particularly sad day when such behavior is enabled by the same institutions we rely on to protect victims,” ​​the complaint states.

Diaz later left the prosecutor’s office in 2022 for reasons not detailed in the lawsuit.

The restraining order against Diaz accuses the police officer of repeatedly threatening his ex-wife, including telling her he could use his status as a police officer to dispose of her body if she left him, and of committing her to a psychiatric hospital for a month.

Doe, who continues to work as a city employee, says in her lawsuit that Diaz was assigned to train her to work in the office’s Gun Violence Response Unit. She says he took advantage of that position to pressure her into dating him, and that she eventually gave in.

“Diaz immediately began subjecting Doe to unwanted comments, touching and sexual advances that were not part of their relationship,” the lawsuit states. “On a daily basis, Diaz groped Doe at work, touching her breasts and buttocks, and putting his hand under her dress.”

The case has been assigned to Judge Blaine K. Bowman. A hearing is tentatively scheduled for November 22.