Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer is facing three new lawsuits, alleging he retaliated against employees in his office who reported sexual harassment claims against their supervisor. Photo from Twitter/UPI
April 1 (UPI) — Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer is facing three new lawsuits, alleging retaliation against employees who reported sexual harassment, according to court documents.
The lawsuits were filed March 24 in the Superior Court of California in Orange County by three unnamed plaintiffs, all of whom worked in the district attorney’s office in Orange County.
The allegations revolve around Gary LoGalbo, a former Senior District Attorney and supervisor in the Orange County office.
LoGalbo was accused in November of making racist comments and sexually harassing a female attorney he was supervising. He resigned from the office when the allegations first surfaced.
LoGalbo and Spitzer are former roommates, and LoGalbo was also the best man at the Spitzer’s wedding, according to the Orange County Register.
Spitzer has been accused of retaliation against those who reported claims against LoGalbo. An independent report released in May cleared him of any wrongdoing.
A second report found that Spitzer violated workplace policies in his behavior toward employees reporting misconduct, but no action was taken against him at the time, according to the lawsuit.
The new lawsuits allege similar behavior. One of the new plaintiffs has been employed at the office for at least 20 years.
“The allegations of harassment were sustained against Gary LoGalbo,” spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said Thursday.
“The allegations that District Attorney Spitzer protected LoGalbo in any way or retaliated against anyone who reported harassment was completely unfounded by the outside investigator. In fact he did everything he could do to not only support the victims of LoGalbo and encourage any and all victims of harassment to come forward.”
Spitzer is currently running for re-election.
His opponent, former prosecutor Pete Hardin, touched on the new allegations on Thursday.
“How many more women need to recount their abuse, harassment, retaliation, and bullying for the people of Orange County to remove Todd Spitzer from office?” Hardin told The Hill.
Spitzer was previously recorded making racist comments in two separate cases while discussing cases involving Black people.
