A choose discovered Montclair Councilman Ben Lopez civilly answerable for sexual harassment this week for subjecting two present male metropolis staff to repeated undesirable sexual advances, in keeping with courtroom paperwork and interviews.
However regardless of repeated calls from metropolis leaders and residents for his resignation, Lopez has given no indication he plans to step down. His determination to stay on the Metropolis Council has already saddled the Pomona Valley neighborhood with a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} in insurance coverage prices, metropolis officers say, and compounded the toll on the 2 staff — each of whom nonetheless work at Metropolis Corridor.
“It appears like we’re again in sq. one,” stated one plaintiff, Edmund Garcia. “I nonetheless continually really feel like I’ve to look at my again.”
Lopez has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, and continued to take action even after the ruling.
“I’ve maintained my innocence. I don’t suppose town ought to have been dragged into this continuing in any respect,” he stated throughout a council assembly Monday. Lopez didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark from The Occasions this week.
Solely Montclair voters have the ability to strip Lopez of his place, in keeping with Brian Hannemann, an lawyer who represented Garcia and his co-plaintiff, Mikey Fuentes. As a result of the case was tried in civil courtroom, Lopez doesn’t meet the authorized threshold to be robotically faraway from the council — which might require him to be convicted of a prison felony.
“In another office, a supervisor discovered answerable for this conduct can be fired instantly,” Hannemann stated. “However as a result of he’s an elected official, the victims nonetheless need to see him wield energy. That’s the injustice right here.”
Within the determination launched Monday, San Bernardino County Superior Court docket Decide Kory Mathewson concluded that Lopez violated California’s Honest Employment and Housing Act by repeatedly subjecting Garcia and Fuentes to undesirable sexual advances, together with anonymously sending express pictures and messages on relationship apps.
The courtroom discovered Lopez liable not just for sexual harassment but additionally for fraud, oppression and malice, a excessive authorized normal that allowed for punitive damages. Every plaintiff was awarded $488,000, with Lopez additionally ordered to reimburse town of Montclair for its settlement prices and authorized charges.
The lawsuit has already value Montclair taxpayers greater than $950,000, in keeping with Metropolis Supervisor Edward Starr, who stated Lopez’s refusal to resign has uncovered town to continued legal responsibility, doubtlessly to the tune of $500,000 in further annual insurance coverage prices. These mixed prices would symbolize 3.7% of Montclair’s total common fund funds of $39.5 million for the present fiscal 12 months.
“That’s cash that ought to have gone to our parks, our police, our roads, however was wasted on the actions of 1 man,” stated resident Alice Garcia, Edmund’s mom, at a council assembly Monday. “Mr. Lopez, you’ve gotten value this metropolis our fame. You’ve got value the taxpayers over half 1,000,000 {dollars}, and you’ve got value my household our peace of thoughts.”
In response to courtroom findings, Lopez used faux names like “Looking2Suck,” and “Down2Play” on relationship apps and sought out Garcia, an IT supervisor with town, despite the fact that he was a direct subordinate.
In messages, he obscured his face, despatched graphic sexual photographs and repeatedly invited Garcia to have interaction in nameless intercourse, which he refused.
“If we may do that completely anonymously between us. Know a manner we may? The place we didn’t need to see one another’s face in any respect the primary time? Depart the mystique and get the deed completed sort factor,” Lopez wrote in messages detailed in courtroom information.
However in later messages, Lopez allegedly despatched {a photograph} of his face. Garcia advised The Occasions he felt disturbed and feared the communications may very well be used to control or blackmail him.
Lopez has maintained he was hacked or impersonated on-line, a protection Mathewson rejected given the proof, together with monetary information tied to the accounts concerned.
Fuentes, town’s director of financial improvement and housing, testified that Lopez subjected him to undesirable feedback about his look, sexuality and private life, culminating in a two-hour lunch assembly that Fuentes believed was work-related, however as a substitute devolved into probing questions on his sexuality.
Each males reported Lopez to metropolis management in 2021. A 3rd-party investigator retained by town later substantiated their allegations and located Lopez not credible, in keeping with the courtroom’s findings.
The Metropolis Council formally censured Lopez in 2022, barred him from committee appointments and restricted his interactions with metropolis workers exterior of conferences. He additionally could not enter most metropolis services, restrictions that Starr stated are tough to implement and have already disrupted operations.
Underneath California legislation, town has restricted authority for additional self-discipline, Mayor John Dutrey stated at a Dec. 15 council assembly, the place he and different board members urged Lopez to resign and “save town additional embarrassment.”
“However that’s unlikely,” Dutrey stated.
Lopez has been on the council since 2020 and was reelected to a second time period in 2024.
Garcia and Fuentes each stay employed by town, however stated the case has altered their day-to-day work lives. Fuentes not attends council conferences in individual, despite the fact that they’re a major job accountability. Each males stated they’ve averted public occasions the place Lopez could seem, in keeping with interviews and transcripts.
“I grew up in Montclair,” Garcia stated. “I used to be already somebody that liked speaking to the general public, that was at all times on the occasions, council conferences and grand openings for companies. I used to be at all times there assembly new folks and attempting to convey a cheerful face. … Now I can’t do this.”
The ruling follows years of controversy surrounding Lopez, who beforehand lobbied towards homosexual marriage and different points by the Conventional Values Coalition, a now-defunct conservative Christian group that the Southern Poverty Regulation Middle designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group.
“I can’t management what folks consider me,” Lopez stated throughout Monday’s council assembly. “To anybody who feels I’ve harmed them, damage them, et cetera, precise or perceived, my apologies.”
Starr stated he’s working with the San Bernardino County district lawyer’s workplace to discover authorized avenues to take away Lopez from workplace, together with by proving he dedicated a felony or betrayed his oath of workplace.
The one options can be for Lopez to resign, for voters to take away him by a pricey recall election, or by the passage of a state legislation increasing on violations that set off removing. His present council time period runs till 2028.
“Elected officers must be held accountable for his or her actions,” Fuentes stated. “The state wants to make use of the legislative course of to discover what mechanisms can be found to cope with a rogue council member.”
Within the meantime, the council will host a closed-session assembly subsequent month to think about stripping Lopez of his month-to-month pay and advantages.
