Local lawyer Bill Marder, who represented two women who sued
District Attorney John Sarsfield for sexual harassment, filed a
petition with the San Benito County Superior Court Friday
requesting a judge to make an investigative report into the
district attorney’s office public.
Hollister – Local lawyer Bill Marder, who represented two women who sued District Attorney John Sarsfield for sexual harassment, filed a petition with the San Benito County Superior Court Friday requesting a judge to make an investigative report into the district attorney’s office public.
Marder claims that the San Benito County Board of Supervisors and the county’s attorney violated the California Public Records Act when they refused to turn over the investigative report into Sarsfield’s office. The report was commissioned by the county and paid for with taxpayer dollars after Victim Witness Department employees Katie Fancher and Julie Roybal filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Sarsfield last summer.
Sarsfield and the county agreed to settle the suit for $35,000 on the condition that the report would stay confidential, according to Supervisor Anthony Botelho. But the Free Lance obtained a copy of a pre-mediation brief summarizing the report’s contents last month. The investigator who wrote the report sustained that Sarsfield had “openly engaged in a romantic relationship with his office manager” and retaliated against four of his own employees because he perceived them as a “threat to his administration,” according to the brief.
However, even after the summary brief was made public, the county denied Marder’s request for a copy of the entire report. The Free Lance also petitioned the county for a copy of the report through the public records act, but County Counsel Karen Forcum has yet to respond to the request.
“These are very serious and important issues and the public should have a right to know,” Marder said. “I thought it should have been public all along.”
California Newspaper Publisher”s Association attorney Jim Ewert, who specializes in Freedom of Information laws, agreed with Marder. Because Sarsfield is an elected official the county had a duty to release the report with names other than Sarsfield’s blacked out, he said.
A judge will hear Marder’s arguments for the report’s release on April 20 and make a decision whether it will be released, Marder said. If the judge denies his request Marder said he will attempt to get the California Court of Appeals to overturn the local judge’s ruling.
However, if a local judge grants Marder’s request, the county also can take the decision to the court of appeals.
Botelho said if a judge allows the report to be made public he wouldn’t lobby the county to take it to the next level.
“When (Supervisor Don) Marcus and I helped settle that suit we had said we would protect that investigative report barring a judicial determination,” Botelho said. “So if a judge rules otherwise, that’s that.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected]
