With the latest news of the resignation of San Diego Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher over an admitted affair and a sexual harassment lawsuit (reported by our Jennifer Van Laar here), “Fed Up With Fletcher,” the advocacy organization that has fought hard to see him removed from office, posted this to Twitter:
Our Mission is Complete. ✅ https://t.co/hbC8FbeN61
— Fed Up With Fletcher (@FedUpWFletcher) March 30, 2023
As I wrote on Monday,
I hope Fletcher gets all the help he needs and digs into his healing and recovery. But those who have followed him and the egregious Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher recognize that he is a deeply troubled and flawed individual who has facilitated the destruction of a once-great County and city, and is a piss-poor leader. Fletcher’s horrible record of governance should disqualify him from being anywhere near public office now, or ever again.
On Wednesday, additional reporting by KUSI News uncovered more dirt. What a surprise.
On Tuesday, a sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against Fletcher by former San Diego Metropolitan Transit System Public Relations Specialist, Grecia Figueroa. So, it appears the dam has finally broken.
Just two days after Fletcher’s shocking announcement, a lawsuit was filed in Superior Court alleging sexual harassment, failure to prevent sexual harassment and retaliation, sexual assault and battery, and whistleblower retaliation.
The suit reads, “Defendant San Diego Metropolitan Transit System’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Nathan Fletcher, stalked plaintiff’s Instagram account and sexually assaulted plaintiff. Defendants abruptly fired plaintiff the same day Nathan Fletcher announced his candidacy for the California State Senate.”
MTS General Counsel Karen Landers said in a statement that Fletcher resigned from his position as board chair Tuesday night and that San Diego City Councilman Stephen Whitburn will assume the position in the interim.
“MTS is aware of the lawsuit from a former MTS employee and has engaged an outside law firm to conduct an investigation. MTS does not comment on pending litigation,” the statement read.
Supervisor Nathan Fletcher has over and over touted himself a champion for women’s rights, and has now confirmed that he did cheat on his wife, Lorena Gonzalez, with a former MTS employee, but refutes her claims in the civil suit of harassment and retaliation, which resulted in termination from her job.
This is not the first time Fletcher has cheated on his wife. While married to his ex-wife, Fletcher had an affair that resulted in a divorce.
Fletcher is claiming it was “the strain on [his] wife and family” after this Sunday announcement about entering rehab that was the factor, and not the sexual harassment allegations.
Sure, Jan.
The strain on my wife and family over this past week has been immense and unbearable. A combination of my personal mistakes plus false accusations has created a burden that my family shouldn’t have to bear. I will be resigning from the Board of Supervisors, effective
— Nathan Fletcher (@nathanfletcher) March 30, 2023
The strain on my wife and family over this past week has been immense and unbearable. A combination of my personal mistakes plus false accusations has created a burden that my family shouldn’t have to bear. I will be resigning from the Board of Supervisors, effective
From Fletcher’s resignation tweets, it sounds as though he does plan to concentrate on his recovery, and repairing his marriage, but his resignation is effective after he completes rehab.
at the end of my medical leave. I will focus solely on getting healthy and being a good husband, father and friend.
I am grateful to my constituents for the honor of serving you, my incredible team who worked tirelessly to make a real difference,— Nathan Fletcher (@nathanfletcher) March 30, 2023
at the end of my medical leave. I will focus solely on getting healthy and being a good husband, father and friend. I am grateful to my constituents for the honor of serving you, my incredible team who worked tirelessly to make a real difference,
Good luck with that. What is fascinating is that Fletcher is still too craven to resign immediately and take the hits. He is holding on to those golden benefits in order to pay for his rehab on the taxpayer dime. Some are none too pleased about this, and rightfully so.
This alcoholic is making close to 300 Grand a year from taxpayers of San Diego. What a crook. pic.twitter.com/bGLmiT22BK
— GRAB Superapp Fan Club (@kham619) March 30, 2023
The strain on families across San Diego over the past 3 years has been immense and unbearable. You need to resign from the Board of Supervisors, effective immediately.
— BSandy (@PBlove2smile) March 30, 2023
Of course, his toxic spouse, Cal Labor leader Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher, is trying to do damage control on her own Twitter account. When Fletcher announced he would be entering rehab because of PTSD and alcohol abuse, Gonzalez-Fletcher led with this.
I love my husband and appreciate his willingness to put our family first. https://t.co/vEsfw2DKBi
— Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (@LorenaSGonzalez) March 27, 2023
I love my husband and appreciate his willingness to put our family first.
Once the sexual harassment allegations were reported, Gonzalez-Fletcher continued her show of support, declaring the accusations as false.
I love my husband. He has acknowledged his mistakes & I believe his name will be cleared of false accusations. Still, I asked him to resign to lessen the strain on our family. I’m relieved he is finally getting treatment he needs. Thank you to everyone who has reached out today. https://t.co/srNQoLaAFE
— Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (@LorenaSGonzalez) March 30, 2023
I love my husband. He has acknowledged his mistakes & I believe his name will be cleared of false accusations. Still, I asked him to resign to lessen the strain on our family. I’m relieved he is finally getting treatment he needs. Thank you to everyone who has reached out today.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. But it is clear the lofty ambitions of their becoming a power couple in the mold of former President Bill Clinton and former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have come crashing to earth. This is what happens when your role models are those two, and you base your ambitions on lying, cheating, and stepping all over people to get ahead.
The local site SanDiegoville.com digs deep into the lawsuit filed by former San Diego MTS staffer Figueroa’s allegations, including some damning Instagram posts which, according to Figueroa’s attorneys, are just a sampling of Fletcher’s licentiousness. Fletcher’s Instagram account was once public, but is now private. The same with Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher’s. I am sure the Twitter accounts will soon follow suit.
SanDiegoville also reminds us that the Fletchers had a suspicious fire at their home early in 2022.
On January 12, 2022, a fire authorities believe was set intentionally occurred at the home of Nathan Fletcher and Lorena Gonzalez. No arrests have been made in that case.
SanDiegoville remains hot on this case with news of another sexual assault allegation—this one from Fletcher’s past, coming back to haunt him.
After news broke of a lawsuit filed by a former county employee against San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher alleging sexual assault, among other claims, another woman has come forward to report sexual assault by Fletcher while she was a 19-year-old intern for Fletcher’s foundation and a student at University of California San Diego. Since reaching out for comment on this issue, Fletcher has since announced his impending resignation.
In 2015, 19-year-old UC San Diego student, Amanda Mansoorbakht, applied for an internship on UC San Diego’s Facebook page for an unpaid position with Nathan Fletcher’s veteran-oriented non-profit Three Wise Men Foundation. Under the supervision of Kaylee Wilson, the foundation’s Executive Assistant at the time, Amanda assisted with fundraising efforts for the annual U.S.S. Midway event supporting veterans. At the time, Fletcher was a Professor in Practice of Political Science at the university, a position UC San Diego created in 2013 with their first appointment being Nathan Fletcher. He continues in this role at the La Jolla-based univeristy to this day.
The dam is indeed breaking, and the flood waters are rushing in on Nathan Fletcher and Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher. Some would call it karma, I prefer to call it divine retribution. We don’t like ugly, and neither does God.
In September 2015, Amanda joined Kaylee on a trip to Minnesota to promote the Three Wise Men Foundation at the Kill Cliff Granite Games Crossfit-style competition. In the beginning of the trip, it is alleged that Kaylee offered Amanda wine, despite her being under the legal drinking age.
Nathan eventually joined them on the trip and, it is alleged he immediately expressed interest in Amanda. Speaking to veterans, Amanda and Nathan engaged in conversations about his time serving in the military.
During a group photo, it is alleged that Fletcher slid his hand down Amanda’s back, around her waist and down her backside. At one point, Fletcher is also said to have commented on how “hot” she was and allegedly touched Amanda inappropriately, running his hand down the back of her pants, over her buttocks and up toward her genital area. She was shocked and appalled by his actions but, being in a different state without funds, Amanda remained on the trip, feeling cornered.
Later that evening, it is alleged Amanda went to a late dinner with Kaylee, who is said to have invited Fletcher without Amanda’s prior knowledge. When he arrived, Fletcher is said to have slid close to Amanda in the booth, pressing his body against hers. Amanda believed Kaylee must have noticed. Kaylee eventually excused herself to the bathroom and, at this point, Fletcher allegedly called Amanda a “tease” and told her not to tell anyone because he was in a relationship. That night, it is alleged that Fletcher sent Amanda explicit, inappropriate text messages, including a request she give him a massage in his hotel room.
It goes on from there, with Fletcher allegedly confronting Amanda and demanding she delete the inappropriate text messages. When Amanda returned to UCSD, she did not return to the internship. She even filed a complaint with the UCSD Sexual Assault Resource Center. But according to SanDiegoville, there was no investigation of the complaint. Fletcher’s office supplied a seemedly-damaging email from 2015 where Fletcher discussed Amanda’s harassment allegations with Kaylee Wilson. Fletcher claims that Amanda came on to him, and Wilson co-signed that Amanda was the one who acted inappropriately, not Fletcher.
Mmmmkay.
After the announcement of Fletcher’s resignation, SanDiegoville reached out to inform him that they would be publishing these reupped allegations from 2015:
Following his announcement of resignation, we emailed his office stating we would be publishing this article effective immediately, and Fletcher’s office responded with this statement:
“These accusations are false and clearly not true as verified by others at the event and emails from the time. This is just piling onto an existing media frenzy.”
Expect the personal and professional sewer created by the Fletchers to overflow and stink to high heaven. Once he’s out of rehab, it will no longer be on the taxpayer dime, so we can live with that. In fact, as the Californians who have had to pay the price for both their personal failings and professional malfeasance, we demand an accounting.
You can only do dirty for so long before it blows back on you—and the blowback is always greater than the damage enacted. This couple has done a ton of damage to the people of California—our livelihoods, our children, our emotional and mental health, and our sanity—not to mention the damage done to their former spouses and the women pushing these lawsuits. We also have yet to hear from their children. In this age of young people spilling boatloads of tea on social media, it’s inevitable. Just give it time.
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