The former chief of staff of a California state senator who recently left the Democratic Party for a Republican filed a lawsuit against her on Thursday alleging she was sexually harassed, created a hostile workplace and fired in retaliation for rejecting her sexual advances.
The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, alleges that in 2023, Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil (R-Jackson) states “involved sexual abuse of authority and power” against the chief of staff. , Chad Condit.
“This is a sex-based quid pro quo relationship of unwanted advances and sexual behavior coupled with punishment and force,” according to the lawsuit, which also names the California state Senate as defendants.
Alvarado-Gil’s attorney denied the allegations.
“The disgruntled former employee made up a strange story, presented without evidence, to get a salary. We hope that the Senator will be released from one of these false statements and financially motivated,” said Ognian Gavrilov’s lawyer in a statement provided to The Times by the Senate Republican Caucus.
Alvarado-Gil was elected as a Democrat in 2022 in a red district located in a rural part of the northeastern Central Valley. His election is widely seen as a top-two primary system in California, after a crowded Republican field split the GOP vote in June and paved the way for two Democrats to advance to the general election despite only receiving a combined 41%. voice. Alvarado-Gil won in November.
Alvarado-Gil switched political parties in August and joined the Republican caucus in the state Senate after criticizing Democratic leadership.
Condit was Alvarado-Gil’s 2022 campaign manager, and later joined the state office as chief of staff.
The lawsuit alleges that early in her tenure, Alvarado-Gil began “grooming the plaintiff and sharing personal and intimate details” about her life, including her dating life, divorce and infidelity. Alvarado-Gil openly talked about his “crimes,” according to the complaint, “which included sex and using drugs, ayahuasca, and taking gummies.”
According to the complaint, Alvarado-Gil repeatedly made inappropriate and sexual comments to Condit, and used her position to assert his dominance and power. In March 2023, for example, Alvarado-Gil allegedly asked Condit his opinion on “trouples”, and whether he and his wife would open one.
She also allegedly made comments insinuating she would “open up to him sexually” because her father, former US Representative Gary Condit, was famously accused of having an affair with Washington intern Chandra Levy. Levy was murdered in 2001, and the elder Condit was initially investigated for his murder in a scandal that rocked the country in the months before the 9/11 attacks. Her death remains unsolved.
The sexually explicit comments eventually turned physical, according to the complaint.
At one point during the trip to Inyo County, Chad Condit alleges, Alvarado-Gil demanded that she show her loyalty to him “by asking him to go down on her.” Condit and Alvarado-Gil were driving, according to the lawsuit, and pulled into the bathroom. After Condit returned to the car, “he pulled down his pants and said, ‘I want you to kiss me and prove your loyalty.'”
“After a month of creating a dominant-submissive relationship, the plaintiff was numb and acted without thinking and then from there with Alvarado-Gil established his ability to dominate people,” states the lawsuit.
Condit allegedly performed sexual acts on several occasions, the complaint included.
“During the last occasion where the plaintiff performed oral sex as demanded by Alvarado-Gil, the Plaintiff suffered a back injury while performing in the car seat with the body having to twist and contort in the space thrown from the car,” according to the lawsuit. “The plaintiff then went to the doctor and found that the injuries were more severe, and the plaintiff had suffered three herniated discs in his back and a collapsed hip.”
Condit then underwent hip surgery due to the injury.
Condit did not return text messages or phone calls from The Times, and his attorney could not be reached for comment. The lawsuit alleges that “Condit’s personal and professional relationships are forever altered, and his employment record and employment opportunities in public employment are damaged and will never be the same.”
Condit’s complaint goes beyond sexual favors, and includes allegations that Alvarado-Gil used people to run errands, shuttle around his daughter and take care of her dog.
At the end of the summer of 2023, Condit has begun to distance himself from Alvarado-Gil who allegedly advanced, according to the lawsuit, which says that the senator and the deputy chief of staff, his childhood friend, to the secretary of the senate “to ask the plaintiff. fired as punishment and revenge .” He was then issued a “false disciplinary letter alleging inappropriate conduct” that Alvarado-Gil had alleged against him.
The lawsuit also alleges that Alvarado-Gil took steps to get close to Condit’s wife and “insert himself into control” of the couple’s life, including hiring Condit’s wife during the March 2023 campaign and going to the same beautician. Later that summer, after Condit allegedly began rejecting Alvarado-Gil’s advances, the senator went to her home “and lied to her husband that the plaintiff was seeing someone who was causing her distress.”
In December, the lawsuit alleges that Alvardo-Gil texted Condit that she had been fired, and that she tried to get him to resign by offering to hire her husband.
The lawsuit also alleges that Senate Secretary Erika Contreras “blindly accepted Alvarado-Gil’s retaliation against the plaintiff and ratified her abuse.”
In a statement, Contreras acknowledged the lawsuit but said the Senate had not acted on it.
“We are in discussions with counsel to determine next steps,” Contreras wrote. “The Senate takes all complaints seriously, but cannot comment on matters related to pending litigation.”
