It has been three years since the revelations of a sexual harassment lawsuit against former San Diego Metropolitan Transportation System (MTS) Chairman and District 4 San Diego Board of Supervisors Nathan Fletcher, which upended his political career and plans for higher office. Fletcher's accuser, Grecia Figueroa, filed a sexual harassment suit against Fletcher and the MTS, alleging sexual harassment, sexual assault, and whistleblower retaliation, because MTS terminated her in the midst of the accusations.

As Redstate covered in 2023:

A former assemblyman, Nathan Fletcher had grand plans of returning back to Sacramento as a state senator. But just before the allegations broke, he abruptly ended his campaign and checked into rehab, supposedly due to PTSD from his years of military service. Fletcher also claimed that the affair between himself and Figueroa was consensual. San Diegans demanded Fletcher resign from the Board of Supervisors, and he eventually did; but not before finishing up his rehab on the taxpayer's dime. 

While San Diego independent journalists and activists continue to pay attention, most of California and the nation have forgotten. But with individuals like Fletcher and Lorena Gonzalez, his wife, former Assemblywoman, and President of the California Federation of Labor (CalLabor), their level of malfeasance never rests. After two years of attorney changes (on both sides), in June of 2025, the judge dismissed both of Figueroa's claims against Fletcher and MTS.

Fletcher decided it was time to face the press again, after slinking away in disgrace two years prior.

Now 49, Fletcher emerged from his self-imposed exile last summer after a Superior Court judge dismissed Figueroa’s claims against the supervisor and MTS. A defamation countersuit he filed against Figueroa is still pending, with a hearing scheduled next week.

At his first press conference in two years, Fletcher appeared last September alongside his wife and said he had no plans to return to politics even though the civil lawsuit filed against him had been dismissed. [...]

State records show Fletcher launched Arrow Advisors in May 2025, a consultancy he opened at an address in Mulberry, Ark. Later last summer, Fletcher filed paperwork in Sacramento showing that he had registered as a lobbyist based in Southlake, Texas.

According to a January local news report, Fletcher's Arrow Advisors will lobby on behalf of organizations that support psychedelic therapy for veterans. So, once again, it appears Fletcher and Gonzalez are playing fast and loose, and plotting to use this backdoor method to get back into the thick of political power. 

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Despite the lawsuit being dismissed (Figueroa plans to appeal) and Fletcher suing Figueroa for defamation, The Wifey is still in full attack mode against Figueroa. Starting in 2023, Gonzalez waged a smear campaign against Figueroa, first to pressure her to drop the lawsuit, and then to paint her as a liar. As an Assemblywoman, Gonzalez was instrumental in destroying thousands of California livelihoods and has harmed hundreds of professions through Assembly Bill 5 (AB5). She also precipitated Elon Musk and his corporations' departure from California with her "F*ck Elon Musk" post on the then-Twitter. Thousands of California jobs and tax revenue were lost in both of these cases, at least in part due to one person's lust for power.

And it continues. In May, Figueroa posted her own plea for help on a CalLabor thread, where she included a screenshot of a Gonzalez X post accusing Figueroa of theft.

Hello, please consider this an official complaint regarding your president @LorenaSGonzalez  who is (AGAIN) using her official accounts to spread lies about me, and now accusing me (falsely) of theft. 

That is COMPLETELY false. I have NEVER been arrested for theft or committed such act. 

This is extremely concerning given that she is the leader of your organization, and lies about a human being should NEVER be tolerated. I ask that she remove these defamatory posts, and publicly apologize. This behavior is despicable and abhorrent. 

@AFLCIO @CaliforniaLabor

Grecia Figueroa

Also in May, Gonzalez decided to make an X post where she took a screenshot of a pending court case against Figueroa, apparently to further rub salt in her wounds. 


Note: Gonzalez locks these posts down, so you cannot share them, comment on them, or embed them. Totally on brand: She throws stones and then tries to hide her hands.

But here is an even clearer indication that Fletcher and Gonzalez are still manipulating things. The MTS decided it would countersue Figueroa and demand she pay their attorneys' fees!

From the linked article: 

The Metropolitan Transit System is trying to collect more than $775,000 in attorney fees and costs from Grecia Figueroa, a fired former employee who sued the agency and alleged sexual harassment and assault against former MTS chair Nathan Fletcher. 

Lori Saldaña, a former assemblymember, raised concerns about the transit agency’s action to seek attorney fees from Figueroa during public comment at a July MTS meeting. 

“Are you aware that you’re requesting a million dollars in legal fees from the woman who filed these allegations against former Chairman Nathan Fletcher?” she asked the board. “She is now working at a minimum wage job. There is no way that she is going to pay a million dollars in legal fees.” 

At least two members of the MTS board’s executive committee told a Voice of San Diego reporter that they weren’t involved in the decision to seek attorney fees from her.  

Board member and San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said in a statement, that though MTS legal counsel recommended board members decline to comment due to pending litigation, he also was not involved in the decision to pursue the fees.  

“That being said, I think it is incredibly important that all public agencies foster environments that protect their employees and never take actions that could have the effect of discouraging employees from reporting sexual harassment and assault,” Elo-Rivera wrote in a statement.

Well, they are failing in that regard. There is nothing more chilling than a well-heeled public utility demanding attorney fees from a former employee who dared to sue them. 

August 28 was the hearing day on this countersuit, and the judge signaled that MTS is probably not going to get what it wanted.

A San Diego judge indicated Friday that he would not award the Metropolitan Transit System nearly $800,000 in attorney fees and costs from former employee Grecia Figueroa, whose allegations against then-MTS Board Chair and San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher ignited one of the city's biggest political scandals in recent years. The fee request remains technically pending until Figueroa's appeal is resolved, but the judge's conclusion that her lawsuit was not "frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless" and was not brought in bad faith intensifies a broader concern surrounding MTS's decision to pursue the money at all: whether seeking potentially devastating financial consequences from an employee who accused the chairman of its governing board of sexual misconduct could discourage other workers from ever speaking out in the first place.

But that really wasn't the point of MTS filing this countersuit, was it? The Fletchers are still deeply embedded in San Diego politics, and this reeks of their fingerprints. San Diego journalist and activist Amy Reichert delved deeper into this in January, but the questions she asks are still salient. 

🚨 TAXPAYER FUNDED COVER-UP WATCH 🚨

A San Diego judge has postponed deciding if disgraced Nathan Fletcher’s defamation lawsuit will go to trial while appeals are pending in the s*xual harassment & retaliation case against him & public transit agency @SDMTS. 

BUT WHAT'S HAPPENING BEHIND CLOSED DOORS IS DISTURBING⬇️

MTS wants the court to award them attorney fees, and here’s what the public doesn’t know:

According to sources, MTS wanted to quietly settle with Fletcher's accuser, Grecia Figueroa, by waiving close to $1 million in attorney’s fees, only if she agreed NOT to appeal.

She declined and appealed.

‼️IT GETS WORSE:

Despite Fletcher's desperate attempts to claim the dismissals “exonerated” him, the judge highlighted that none of the rulings “involved a finding or even analysis regarding consent.” 

So, MTS is stepping in. Aside from demanding close to $1 million from their former employee, they want the court to rule on issues of “consent” and lock in Fletcher’s narrative as the truth.  Without a trial or jury hearing her testimony. 

⚠️This is not normal employment litigation.

Why is a taxpayer-funded agency using the courts to protect a disgraced politician accused of sexual harassment instead of letting the truth be tested?

Is Union influence also involved as Fletcher's wife is the head of @Californialabor Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher?

Californians deserve better.

Like bloodthirsty ticks, Nathan Fletcher and Lorena Gonzalez discover new ways to embed and burrow deeply into political life. Time to start paying attention again.