A longtime Hollister resident and former Red Cross volunteer has
filed a lawsuit against the chairman of the board of the San Benito
County chapter of the Red Cross claiming he sexually assaulted
her.
Lillian Vasquez, 66, alleged that Michael McLennan sexually
assaulted her against her will at a Fireman’s Ball at Bolado Park
in September of 2002.
A longtime Hollister resident and former Red Cross volunteer has filed a lawsuit against the chairman of the board of the San Benito County chapter of the Red Cross claiming he sexually assaulted her.
Lillian Vasquez, 66, alleged that Michael McLennan sexually assaulted her against her will at a Fireman’s Ball at Bolado Park in September of 2002.
McLennan strongly denies the charges.
Vasquez was at the function representing the Red Cross, and McLennan was there representing San Benito Bank, where he works.
According to the suit, during the course of the evening McLennan became intoxicated, came over to where Vasquez was sitting and began groping her.
“Mr. McLennan reached over to where I was sitting and he grabbed my thighs in a vulgar way,” Vasquez said in a written statement. “His hands were attempting to reach my vagina area. I had to grab his hands to stop him.”
According to Vasquez, McLennan’s speech was slurred, his eyes were red and he smelled strongly of alcohol. When her continual pleas for McLennan to stop went unheeded, she finally got up from the table to go outside.
In her statement she claims that as she was walking away McLennan “reached out and slapped my buttocks area.”
When Vasquez returned, she sat down at the table with her friend and former Red Cross volunteer Eva Reyna.
“(McLennan) came over to where the two of us were sitting, but he was drunk to the gills,” Reyna said. “He knelt down and started talking to us. He started touching Lillian in her bottom… Lillian kept telling him to get up and go.”
The allegations that he assaulted Vasquez are “baseless and frivolous,” McLennan said Wednesday.
“I don’t even know Lillian, except for at the Fireman’s Ball. That’s the first time I met her,” he said. “And I was not highly intoxicated. I was there for a bank function, and you just don’t do that in the banking industry.”
After the incident occurred, Vasquez reported the alleged assault to the Red Cross’s Executive Director Kathryn Engelhard, said her attorney Arthur Cantu.
“At first, she was hoping to protect the integrity of the Red Cross by handling it administratively,” Cantu said. “The executive director ignored her pleas.”
When nothing was done about it within the Red Cross, she then filed a report with the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department in January, Cantu said. She also terminated her volunteer work with the organization that she had been involved with since 1989, he said.
“She never told me,” Engelhard said. “She lied. We never heard anything about this until after Charron Contival was fired, and then they wrote a letter saying this had happened.”
Vasquez and Contival, who was the interim director who was fired and charged with fraud, are close friends, Engelhard said.
“It’s interesting that it was never brought up until after Charron Contival was fired,” Engelhard said. “It’s interesting that the lawsuit was filed the day before (Contival’s) arraignment and by the same attorney.”
The two cases have nothing to do with one another, and there is no coincidence, Cantu said.
“(Engelhard’s) lying,” Cantu said. “She’s going to lie the whole time. She basically told Lillian to stop spreading rumors and I’m not going to do anything about it.”
When she found out about the alleged assault, Engelhard filed an incident report in February and contacted the National Red Cross, she said.
She also turned the report over to the sheriff’s department, who was at that time investigating Vasquez’s claim.
“If a volunteer came in and said they’d been sexually assaulted, I would immediately respond and handle it accordingly,” Engelhard said. “That never occurred. I support the board members and I support the staff.”
The sheriff’s department sent the report to District Attorney John Sarsfield to be charged, but neither agency will release any information because it is still under investigation, Cantu said.
“I have been waiting 11 months for Mr. Sarsfield to file charges. I called him several times… and he only returned one call saying the case is still under review,” Vasquez said in a written press release. “The man that violated me needs to be brought to justice. I cannot wait any longer.”
When the lawsuit was filed Dec. 5, Sarsfield called Vasquez the next day to set up an interview with her, Cantu said.
McLennan is looking at a countersuit and will be contacting individual counsel as well as counsel through the National Red Cross, he said.
Like Engelhard, he believes the suit is in retaliation of Contival’s discharge, he said.
“I’m taking this very seriously,” he said. “I’m concerned with the reputation of the Red Cross because it’s such a worthwhile organization.”
