On Friday, the lawyers for former San Diego Board of Supervisors member, Nathan Fletcher released to the media Instagram messages between Fletcher and former MTS staffer, Grecia Figueroa. As RedState reported, Figueroa filed a March 2023 lawsuit against Fletcher for sexual harassment and MTS for retaliation and wrongful termination. 

Over the course of 2023, Figueroa's attorneys have released what appear to be damning social media messages showing that Figueroa was stalked and harassed by Fletcher throughout her MTS employment. Fletcher claimed the relationship was consensual and that no harassment happened, so this latest release of IG messages from the Fletcher legal team appears to corroborate Fletcher's claims.  

A new legal filing makes searing accusations against the woman suing former San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher for sexual harassment.

Grecia Figueroa filed a civil lawsuit in March of 2023, claiming Fletcher repeatedly groped her and sexually harassed her over six months while pursuing a sexual relationship. Figueroa worked in public relations for the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) at the time of the alleged assault and claims that Fletcher, who chaired the MTS board before resigning in the face of the allegations, had a hand in her firing in early 2023.

In August, a judge ordered Figueroa to provide documentation of all written communication between her and Fletcher, including text and social media messages and emails. Fletcher requested the documentation in a motion filed in August, arguing their full conversations would show he and Figuroa had only consensual interactions.

Now, Fletcher’s lawyer is calling for immediate dismissal of the case, submitting a new court filing that includes dozens of never-before-seen private messages. The filing says those messages depict a playful, flirtatious, and consensual relationship between Figueroa and Fletcher.

In response, Figueroa's attorneys filed a January 8 letter refusing to dismiss the case:

Dear Counsel: 

We are writing to provide a formal response to Defendant Nathan Fletcher's ("Fletcher") demand for dismissal dated January 3, 2024 (the "Demand"). The Demand, which was served after hours last week, provides a deadline of today for our office to dismiss Plaintiff Grecia Figueroa's ("Plaintiff' or "Ms. Figueroa") claims against Fletcher. Be advised that, for myriad reasons discussed herein, our office will not be dismissing any claim or party from the case at this time. 

Upon reviewing the Demand, we were disappointed yet unsurprised by its oversimplified rendition of the facts. In material ways, your client and your firm appear to gravely misunderstand, or perhaps blatantly ignore, the nuance surrounding consent in sexual harassment/assault cases. Your error underscores much of why we cannot and will not dismiss any claim or party at this early stage of the case. Put simply, your Demand contains improper arguments that would be expected much later on in a motion for summary judgment. 

Figueroa's counsel also included additional text threads that Grecia Figueroa sent to a personal friend, expressing her fear, anxiety, and emotional distress. The clever attorneys juxtaposed these messages alongside the seemingly flirty exchanges supplied by Fletcher's counsel. From this perspective, it appears that Figueroa was indeed walking a tightrope between trying to hold on to her job and staving off Fletcher's unwanted advances.

🚨NATHAN FLETCHER SCANDAL UPDATE🚨 pic.twitter.com/d05fnpOjmp

— 𝑍ᴀᴄᴋ Ꮹɪᴀɴɪɴᴏ (@ZackGianino) January 20, 2024

That exchange between attorneys was over 10 days ago, and has only been released to the press since Friday. Right on cue, California Federation of Labor head, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher decided she was tired of being quiet about her husband's legal woes. Gonzalez Fletcher penned a long thread to Facebook and shared it to her X (formerly Twitter) followers. In it, Gonzalez Fletcher plays the faithful wife standing by her man, despite his alleged infidelity, and uses the IG messages released by Fletcher's attorneys to defend him and accuse Figueroa of being the aggressor, making false claims, and seeking money and attention.

Kind of like the pot calling the kettle black.

Every single day in my job, I see the power of greed. Lust for personal wealth - by CEOs, billionaires, investors- contributes immensely to the exploitation and disrespect of working people. And yet, I still get shocked by what people will do to others for money.

— Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (@LorenaSGonzalez) January 18, 2024

Wrongful allegations of sexual assault do irreparable damage to the accused, but they also hurt all women who are really sexually assaulted. It’s clear now that Grecia Figueroa & her attorneys lied from day 1. You can read all her messages for yourself: https://t.co/2zz9sEyyY0

— Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (@LorenaSGonzalez) January 20, 2024

The attached Facebook post reads:

This has been a really tough year for my family, but we decided early on to tackle the wrongful allegations against Nathan in actual court not the court of public opinion. I expect it will be really hard to get media to fairly cover what is now coming out - now that all of his accuser’s messages are public. It is clear she & her attorneys lied from the beginning. She wasn’t assaulted, or harassed, it isn’t even he said she said, and she was given a detailed letter documenting why MTS fired her. 

Figueroa's attorneys are adamant that they will not drop the case, which reflects there is more evidence to be revealed--probably evidence that is damning for Nathan Fletcher. So, this salvo by Gonzalez Fletcher is an attempt to change the narrative that Figueroa is lying and has no leg to stand upon. If there really were no "there" there, then Gonzalez Fletcher wouldn't have bothered to comment, especially with this long tome. 

The claim that they wanted to tackle the wrongful allegations in court rather than the court of public opinion is also not on brand for the Fletchers. They have spent their careers and their X/Twitter feeds lobbying and attempting to destroy their enemies in the court of public opinion. All you have to do is look at what she did to the independent professionals destroyed by AB5 to see that she delights in kicking people while they are down, and decimating anyone she perceives as an enemy. Why are they suddenly changing tactics now?

Gonzalez Fletcher continues her lament, claiming Figueroa's attorneys (notice she never uses Grecia Figueroa's name) were trying to keep these messages from the public.

Warning: sexual references

Despite what they wrote in her initial complaint, the messages show she aggressively pursued Nathan. He didn’t stalk her. She initiated Instagram communication with him (the week after I announced that I had to have a double mastectomy.) She emailed him & messaged him continuously for months, and told him that he needed company when I was out of town — and that’s how they ended up in a stairwell. It was her that directed him to the conference room at MTS where she later said she was assaulted. After that meeting she told him she missed his lips. It was her that sexualized all their messages in between their 3 brief in person meetings. It was her that continually tried to get him to meet her in other places alone. She ultimately messaged him she wanted to perform oral sex on him (in Spanish slang - Ganas de Comerte ) and that’s when he pulled back. She was the aggressor. She only constructed this story of assault & harassment after he told her he couldn’t continue to talk to her in January of last year. Then she was later fired for cause by MTS. That’s when she attempted to get millions of dollars from us or threatened to say she was assaulted. The legal process is long, and clearly we are looking at all our options.

Gonzalez Fletcher frames the IG messages and Figueroa's version of the story to make Nathan Fletcher appear the poor, put-upon victim. Gonzalez Fletcher flips Figueroa's statements to make her appear the aggressive and self-seeking actor rather than the victim of her husband's unwanted advances. The IG messages are now part of the court record and public record, so anyone can look at them. But Gonzalez Fletcher doesn't want you to read them for yourself and come to your own conclusions; she wants to embed in your mind her version first. Gonzalez Fletcher puts her otherwise useless Stanford law degree to work to argue her husband's case for him. 

Nathan did exactly what he said in his statement, he violated my trust. That’s it. All of this can be found now in court documents. The only people who are victims in this whole thing are me, my kids and the countless women who are actually sexually assaulted every day and are hurt by false accusations. 

Ahh, now the victim card has been laid down, but Gonzalez Fletcher ensures she includes "the countless women" who have been sexually assaulted. Does this also include Juli Beth Hinds, who recently filed a tort claim (precursor to a lawsuit) alleging retaliation by Fletcher because she reported that Fletcher had sexually harassed one of his students while a "Professor of Practice" at UC San Diego? Or the 2015 allegations by Amanda, who accused Fletcher of sexual harassment when she was an unpaid intern with Fletcher's veteran-oriented non-profit, Three Wise Men Foundation? 

Asking for a friend. 

To refresh memory, our Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar covered in Figueroa's original complaint, that Fletcher and Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher threatened and harassed her to drop the complaint.

When San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) PR specialist Grecia Figueroa filed that sexual harassment claim against Nathan Fletcher and the agency – an agency in which many employees are unionized and part of the California Labor Federation – Gonzalez Fletcher herself stepped in to threaten, harass, intimidate, and attempt to silence the victim.

To emphasize, so the point isn’t lost: the state’s most powerful union leader personally participated in threatening, harassing, and intimidating a victim who had filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”) regarding the sexual harassment and abuse she’d experienced on the job, and her termination after telling her abuser no. When the victim received a “right to sue” letter with DFEH and exercised that right, that labor union leader then personally participated in defaming the victim and accusing her of attempted extortion.

 This is directly from Figueroa's 2023 verified civil complaint:

Prior to filing this action, Ms. Figueroa attempted to engage in meaningful, pre-litigation settlement discussions with Fletcher to resolve her claims quietly and amicably.

Fletcher immediately contacted Ms. Figueroa, by and through counsel, to request that Ms. Figueroa keep the matter strictly between herself and Fletcher and that she remain absolutely silent about her story, not even sharing it with MTS. As a professional courtesy, Ms. Figueroa agreed and provided a summary of her claims, in hopes that the parties could open a good-faith dialogue to resolve the matter on mutually agreeable terms.

It was then things went south, and any attempt at "good-faith dialogue" went out the window. Paragraphs 58-61 of the complaint said:

These discussions were short-lived, however, because Fletcher soon resorted to threats of bullying, intimidation, and defamatory legal action against Ms. Figueroa if she ever brought her story to light.

Specifically, on [Sunday] March 26, 2023, Fletcher’s counsel conveyed that Fletcher and his wife, Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher, intended to sue Ms. Figueroa (and her counsel) for extortion if Ms. Figueroa filed a civil suit to vindicate her rights as alleged herein. In addition, they stated they would make Ms. Figueroa “look terrible, and it’s going to follow her for the rest of her life.”

Needless to say, Ms. Figueroa did not perceive Fletcher’s threats as an indication of good-faith settlement communications, and the discussion quickly proved futile.

Notably, just a few hours later, that same day, on March 26, 2023, Fletcher publicly announced his withdrawal from the California State Senate race, citing the need to address “post traumatic stress, trauma and alcohol abuse” – a maneuver which some might characterize as a PR stunt designed to shift optics from villain to victim in anticipation of a scandal.

It appears that Gonzalez Fletcher is making good on the threat documented above, but pretending to play the victim card while doing it. That is totally on brand.

No matter what the outcome of this lawsuit, the House of Gonzalez Fletcher is rapidly tumbling down. Two people who have lied, cheated, and stepped on other people to get to the top of the political food chain are now watching their deceptive and duplicitous work of building a political legacy crumble to dust. And if Figueroa's allegations against Gonzalez Fletcher prove true, she will have wiped out two political careers in one lawsuit.