The First Amendment Coalition Friday filed a lawsuit against San Diego County to force the disclosure of records relating to allegations of sexual misconduct against the District Attorney’s Office.

According to the lawsuit, the District Attorney’s Office has refused to release the records, which clearly must be disclosed under the California Public Records Act and are of significant public concern.

The District Attorney’s Office issued a statement in response to the filing of the suit.

“The District Attorney’s Office is fully committed to transparency and to fulfilling our responsibilities every time we receive a request under the California Public Records Act, as we have done for each of the 145 requests we’ve received in the past year,” the statement read. “Further, the District Attorney’s Office takes all allegations of sexual misconduct seriously, moves quickly to investigate such claims and takes disciplinary action when appropriate. The DA’s Office provided three responses to the FAC, comprising 20 pages, which met our obligations under the Public Records Act.”

According to the FAC, the District Attorney has admitted to having records relating to at least six instances of alleged sexual harassment and/or misconduct dating back to 2013, including one in which a county prosecutor allegedly took nude photos on county property, as well as “non-sexual” photos taken in a courtroom, in violation of court policies.

–City News Service

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