A federal court ruling has halted a second sexual harassment lawsuit targeting Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto.
Filed in July 2013 on behalf of Deputy Robin Gonzalez, the complaint failed to demonstrate a continuing pattern of conduct that fell within the required limitations period of March 2012 or later, U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller wrote in the 19-page decision handed down Friday.
“After March 2012, within the limitations period, only a few allegations remain,” Mueller wrote. “Even when construed in the light most favorable to Gonzalez, these accounts describe no objectively sexual color in Prieto’s behavior.”
The ruling granted a defense request for summary judgment, which effectively dismisses the plaintiff’s claims.
Prieto deferred comment about the decision to the Sacramento law firm Angelo, Kilday & Kilduff, which represented the county and Prieto in the court action.
“We are pleased with the result and happy we can move forward and put this behind us,” attorney Cori Sarno said in a prepared statement.
Attorney Johnny L. Griffin III, who represented both Gonzalez and Victoria Zetwick, a former Yolo County correctional sergeant whose own sexual harassment lawsuit against Prieto was dismissed last November, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Employed by the Sheriff’s Office since 2002, Gonzalez claimed she was subjected to “unwanted hugging, kissing, sexual touching and sexual comments” from Prieto while on the job, including offers of professional advantages in exchange for sexual favors.
Gonzalez also alleged that co-workers teased her about the conduct and Yolo County human resources officials rebuffed her attempts to report it, telling her there was little the county could do because Prieto was an elected official.
Prieto denied the allegations, calling lawsuit’s claims “absurd.”
In Friday’s ruling, Mueller noted that Prieto’s alleged conduct changed after Gonzalez filed two internal complaints in 2010, and that her only interactions with Prieto within the limitations period involved compliments about Gonzalez’s recent weight loss while looking at her body in what Gonzalez described as “a sexual manner.”
“Gonzalez describes no objective basis for her belief that Prieto’s looks were sexual, let alone enough to create a ‘hostile or abusive’ employment environment,” Mueller wrote. “Tellingly, Gonzalez has not provided the testimony of any witness who also believed Prieto’s glances were overtly sexual or inappropriate.”
Mueller’s decision comes just over eight months after U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley granted a defense request for summary judgment in the Zetwick lawsuit, agreeing with the county’s attorneys who argued that Prieto’s conduct “does not rise to the level required to establish a hostile work environment.”
“Not only do courts consider hugs and kisses on the cheek to be within the realm of common workplace behavior, but the facts of this case indicate that this behavior was common in (the) plaintiff’s own workplace,” Nunley wrote.
Griffin said at the time he would appeal Nunley’s ruling before the 9th District Court of Appeals.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene