Roundtable: San Diego County Settles In Deputy Sexual Misconduct Investigation

MS: The county agrees to pay out more than $400,000 to settle two sexual misconduct claims against the Sheriff's deputy. And offers have been made on claims by 13 other women. And no more ladies night. And a look at the race to replace Governor Jerry Brown as his tenure as the states longest-serving governor winds down. I am Mark Sauer. The Roundtable starts now. MS: Welcome to our discussion of the week's top stories. Joining me is Ben Adler, Amita Sharma , and Mari Peyton. And Jeff McDonald of the San Diego Union Tribune. Two of more than a dozen women of sexual misconduct against a deputy settled this week. They agreed to pay $412,000 to the two women with many more settlements in the future. Let's start with the accusations against Deputy Richard Fischer . First of all, is he an ex-deputy? JM: He has a employee -- he is an employee. MS: There are the civil complaints as was a criminal charge? JM: The civil complaints started piling up last fall after some women reported him coming to their homes and groping them during routine law enforcement contact. One of the women got a lawyer and filed a claim against the County and that got an investigation going. And the investigation took some months. First he was put on desk duty then paid leave and now he is on unpaid leave, but still employed. He has been charged with 14 separate counts. I think eight ahluneeze of sexual misconduct and sexual assault. MS: Are there a range of allegations? JM: There are eight Mac felonies and I think one infraction. He has exposed himself allegedly and groped women. He has assaulted women to varying degrees. And that is a criminal case that is pending in Superior Court. He is out on bail. The civil cases have been handled by one lawyer. He said he has received settlement offers from 15 of the clients. Two have excepted and the others he feels are not high enough to warrant being accepted. MS: And Amita Sharma, you interviewed the accusers? These were anonymous? AS: At the time, yes. [Clip] He caught me at my lowest point. I had my house burglarized and my husband was out of the country. He knew that. And he knew that I was alone. As I said before, if he had come to my house without a uniform, I would never let him in. And because he had a uniform and was representing someone that was supposed to protect you, I felt safe. MS: So, Amita, how are they affected? The allegations are gets a deputy. AS: I mean, we all call the police when we are in a state of distress. And that is how a majority of these 15 women crossed paths with Deputy Fischer. So one of the women who really stands out for me, her name is CP. She said that she reached out to the Sheriff's Department after her boyfriend had threatened to ran his car through her garage. So Deputy Fischer along with another deputy arrived at her place and then he came back after they left. She is on edge and she is sad and she is vulnerable. And she opened the door because he has already been there. And then he allegedly sexually misbehaves with her. And she said that he scared me so badly that I will never let an officer in my home again. So I say that over all the women that I spoke with said that they lost confidence in the Sheriff's departments. They lost confidence in police. The other question of this that is connected to this is what does this mean for the Sheriff's Department if you have lost trust? Granted, it is a small group of people, but you've lost trust and how do you regain that? MS: And they are making offers, as you noted, to these other women. JM: They are as far as the dollars go. MS: They are negotiating. JM: It is a terrible case and a lot of the victims establish a pattern where he would come back and sort of threatened them and say I will be watching you, I know where you live and I will be coming to check on you. So it was a pattern of harassment. AS: And the other part of this that we don't talk about too much, because no one has told us differently, but one has to wonder who else in the department knew? They go out in pairs. And officers talk and they see things. There trained observers. They hear things they know things. What was known about him before any of this came to light and became public? MS: Now, Richard Fischer is out on bail. Has he had any public response to the allegations? JM: He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and his lawyer said they look forward to defending his client. And that is it. I've reached out multiple times before and after the arraignment and no response whatsoever. So we will see how that goes. MS: There is a political aspect to this, and it is an election year. And this case to be a factor. Jeff, you did a story earlier in the year on core having his opponent -- reprimanded for talking to some of the alleged victims? JM: Yes. There is no love lost between the Sheriff and his challenger. And according to Commander Myers he was being retaliated against for running against his boss. All he was doing was reaching out to constituents and seeing what, if anything, he could do when he is elected. The Sheriff took a different view of the approach and decided he may been interfering with an ongoing investigation and jeopardizing the counties legal position. And he told him to stop. JM: Then it got written up the next day. So it got written up twice. MS: So we can expect a nasty campaign as displays and to the election. How much of an issue do you think overall sexual misconduct will be in the campaign? JM: It is upcoming and a lot of the conversations he is having and this is a bad apple and we do our best to root them out. We have a process to go through because law enforcement officers have safeguards. That is why he is still in the department as an employee., Although he does not go to work and is not being paid. He sees this as a success that they got rid of a bad officer. But the critics and the victims think the County dragged its feet for months before resting the guy. AS: And how much will that play into this element negotiations? The fact that in many people's eyes it took a long time. JM: It is unclear. When they settle, we do not get many of the details that would come out like it trial. The settlement might be good for the victims, and good for them for winning money, but it it does deprive the private community about who knew what. AS: I know this is boilerplate in settlements when government agencies settle, they don't acknowledge any kind of wrongdoing. What is your sense about what the victims what from the county in terms of acknowledgments? JM: I think it would probably vary from victim to victim depending on the damages. On the other hand, I'm pretty confident they will not get an apology. MS: We are going to move on. We will look for further reporting on that. And how much money it adds up to. Gender discrimination has been an issue in America since the dawn of the Republic. Women did not get the right to vote until 1920. The story today is about men who are victims of discrimination by women. This is a provocative story. Start with the case here of Mandy Rodriguez. What did she do to draw a lawsuit? MP: So she is a mother from Escondido. She is also an entrepreneur. She is a DJ on the side, something she is passionate about. So she has an event last August and is just supposed to be a fun networking event for women to get together and let loose and meet new friends. It took place at a hotel in Oceanside. A man came and he asked if he could be let in and someone at the door, this is according to the complaint, he was turned away and said this is only for women. And he produced a ticket. And according to Mandy, the event had sold out weeks in advance. But he was turned away. He left and filed a lawsuit. And it was gender discrimination. He said he was discriminated against because he was a man and should have been let in to this event. JM: What was the impact of this lawsuit on Mandy Rodriguez? MP It was devastating. She said she went to a dark place and was shocked and did not even know a lawyer. She was the mother just trying to do this on the side. So she -- she did not know where to start. So she ended up calling an attorney who helped her and took the case pro bono. MS: And you reported on another lawsuit brought. Tell us the attorney who did this filing. MP: The attorney, he has filed 300 discrimination lawsuits, by his account in the state of California. And he is citing a civil rights act, which was originally meant to prevent discrimination against minorities and people for sexual orientation, and their gender, and was passed in the 1950s. So he is using that law and basically flipping it. He does say that he represents men and women, but he is using that and turning the tables, if you will, and successfully -- most of the cases are settling. But he is winning some of those cases. MS: And you reported on another case involving Claire Wasserman. MP: Claire Wasserman is passionate about bringing women together in this Me Too movement. And bringing together a safe place for women to learn how to close the gender pay gap and demand raises, and be treated equally. So she held an event at the red door, which is a restaurant around here. It was a ladies networking event. And a man by the name of Rich Allison went to that event and initially he was turned away, but he went through a side door, and this is according to the court documents, -- neither of the men would talk to me involved in these two losses. He was turned away and eventually was not given the same drink specials as the women that were at the event. So he also sued Claire and the red door and both of those cases recently settled. MS: And as you say, they don't really want to come forward and state their name on television, but there filing a lot of the suits. What is the results? Some of these are settling. There kind of winning, aren't they? MP: If you look at the civil rights act and how it was written, they are claiming that there is wrong against them. And they are settling or winning in some of these cases, a lot of these cases. AS: I feel like they are using this on technical grounds. They are winning on technical grounds alone, but there is at least, an undercurrent of something else that they are upset about women congregating in a particular way are given special favors. I'm wondering if you got a sense of that perhaps they were doing this to maybe humiliate or they are embittered in some way about what is going on with the Me Too movement or like-minded movements? MP: I cannot speak for the two men who filed the lawsuits. But the attorney that I spoke to on the phone, and I also interviewed another gentleman who is part of this national coalition for men, which we have not mentioned, which is a group based in San Diego and they fight for equality for men and boys. They do not file lawsuits, but a lot of the members do. MS: While we set up a couple of clips that we have your. The first one is from the national coalition of men. [Clip] The purpose is to get awareness out there that men -- men's rights are important and help men out. They do a lot of work with legislation and there are certain policies that aren't necessarily beneficial for men. And one way of putting it is that women may gotten the short end of the stick historically, and now it has swung and there are a lot of policies that are against men. AS: So what are those policies? MP: I asked him that question specifically. He could not talk specifically about what those policies were. His father is a lawyer and works for the men's legal defense fund so he sees a lot of paternity cases where fathers are not given the same rights, according to them, as the mothers. But he could not give specifics and he talked more about how pop culture men are portrayed as not being able to take care of the home where the kids and stereotyped. The back to your point, I really do think that these people believe that they need to do something for equality. I did not get the sense that they felt like -- in terms of what is going on right now that they felt particularly -- JM: How are they getting damages when they are not being allowed into restaurant when women are having a meeting? What kind of damages? I can understand settling, don't they had to establish that they have been damaged in some way? MP: Apparently not. Apparently, they are using the Civil Rights Act and their winning because for them -- some of the women had told me that in their offense when they let these men in, they don't actually come in. They walk away. So they are not necessarily wanting to be there. AS: It sounds like they're sending a message, and what is that message? MP: I did ask about payments and if they were motivated by money. And he said no. He is doing this for equality. MS: A move to maybe change the law? MP: So Amanda Allen who represented the case, she is passionate about this and has made it her mission to make some changes. And after the story aired, Lorena González Fletcher saw that story and contacted Amanda Allen and said that she wants to work with her possibly going forward to make amends to the law and exceptions and maybe change the wording to the beginning stages of all that. But there is sort of this feeling that this was a well intentions law, but it is being abused and used for different purposes. MS: This is fascinating. We will follow-up if that law changes. We're going to move on to the California current governor who is filed multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration. He's going out fighting. And there is a race in this election year. Ben Adler, tell us why your down from Sacramento this week? BA: The California Republican party convention is here at the Sheraton and the Democrats held their state party convention in February. So it has been great to be down to visit your lovely city. MS: And great for San Diego. So Republicans obviously have not fared well statewide in recent years. 2018 likely be any different? BA: If we are looking at an election where Democrats so far in primaries and special elections have been more motivated than Republicans to turn out boat, given Donald Trump being president, the party out of power in the White House is more motivated to turn out the midterms. And then you factor out that Democrats dominate California politics. They hold all the constitutional offices, super majorities in the state legislature and you also have 25% or so of registered Republicans. So putting all that together, Republicans are at a low point and maybe falling lower if you look at voter registration. So they have a lot of challenges ahead of them. In particular, defending several house seats held by Republicans, including the marquee race and a couple Republicans and Democrats vying for that C. Several other -- other congressional seats are up for grabs and it is a big year for Democrats on the national front trying to make gains. And it starts in California. Republicans have uphill battles in the state races. MS: We should mention that Duncan Hunter Junior seat and we've talked a lot about that on the show. He is looking at campaign-finance allegation. You would never think in a red district and up-and-down North and South, but that could be in play as well. BA: When you look at wave elections, as they are called, and you saw one in 2010 when Republican S.W.A.T. Democrats out of control of the house. A lot of times there are always a couple of seats in Congress that no one expects to switch parties that are propelled there by the wave. No evidence yet necessarily that Duncan Hunter will be one copy Democrats would like to see that. Tom McClintock in the Sacramento area, that is not seen as a competitive race, but if this wave picks up steam, that is some that could go. Ed Royce just retired and Mimi Walters is seeking reelection. And one more is the race in Palmdale. MS: So there could be a lot of play in the house races. The governors race is the big enchilada. I know there are a lot of names on the ballot. Who are the main Democratic contenders and leading Republican one trying to replace Jerry Brown? BA: There are six leading candidates. There will be six at the first big debate next Tuesday. Vote by mail bouts got on Monday. So Gavin Newsom, Antonio B rugosa -- John Chung, and Delaine Eason. They are the for Democrats that would be there. John Cox in orange county assemblymen Travis Allen. MS: John Cox was on the midday edition this week's. And he talked about the fact that marijuana users should be hospitalized and it is a controversial position. And then he said he never said that. He actually was on video saying that. It brings me to the question of our we post back era of candidate to deny things that we've seen them say? BA: We've seen this at the national level. And you are seeing some candidates trying to channel Donald Trump. I think Travis Allen has taken some of Trump's positions on the sanctuary state law and other themes that the President has talked about. The goal is to win enough support among primary voters. And we have this odd system in California. MS: The jungle primary. BA: So the top two finishers, regardless of political party advance to the November general election. Gavin Newsom is seen as the front runner. And will he face off against another Democrat? Or a Republican and John Cox has snuck into recent -- into the second place recently. In a state like California, liberally controlled right now, and in an election where the turnout is likely to skew more Democratic than it might otherwise, we could have a race essentially decided in June if the Republican advances along with Gavin Newsom. And he told me in an interview that we ran this week that he hoped he would face a Republican and he is out today with the TV ad attacking John Cox, the Republican saying why? Why is he the first candidate putting out an attack at? He is trying to -- it is clever. He is trying to introduce voters subtly to John Cox so that Republicans will be like, oh, he is a Republican in this race and I'm going to vote for him. AS: So how does John Cox counteract that? BA: He's probably all right with that. He wants to advance in the ad is basically saying that -- AS: Is helping them. JM: He supports the NRA and he does support the NRA. He would probably be pretty okay with this. At the same time you have Kevin McCarthy endorsing John Cox, which is big. He is hoping that he advances to the runoff as well. Because all these congressional seats we talked about, if there are two Democrats running for governor in November, will Republican voters turnout? He does not think they will and he would then worry about the low Republican turnout affecting his congressional colleagues. So here some irony. The number two Republican in the House of Representatives who is aligned to be the next speaker of the house has the same goal as Gavin Newsom for the June 5 -- is John Cox and Gavin Newsom. AS: So he is willing to take that risk, in terms of democratic outcomes in the election by doing what he's doing. BA: For the congressional races? Well, I think Gavin Newsom would probably say he thinks Democrats will do quite well in the congressional races regardless of who is at the top of the ticket. I think he's looking at his race and thinking about who I the best shot of beating. You probably have a better shot at beating Travis Allen. And John Cox is not afraid to put his money into the race. MS: We will have fun covering the election. I'm glad you excited -- this wraps up another week of stories. I would like to thank my guests, then Adler, Amita Sharma, Mari Payton, and Jeff McDonald of the San Diego Union Tribune. All of the stories we discussed today are available on her website, KPBS.org. I am Mark Sauer. Thank you for being with us and join us again next week on the Roundtable.