Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, whose tenure as the first Democratic mayor in two decades ended in disgrace after less than a year amid a slew of sexual harassment lawsuits and claims, has died according to multiple media reports.
Filner was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in Queens, New York before arriving in Southern California in the process of getting his Ph.D. After graduation, he worked for years as a history professor at San Diego State University.
Filner — who was famously arrested for his Freedom Rider activism in 1961, when he and others successfully challenged the system of segregation that permeated interstate travel in the American South — officially began his political career began in 1979, when he ran for a San Diego Unified School District board seat.
He was elected president of the school board in 1982, and from there went to the San Diego City Council, then the House of Representatives.
He remained there until 2012, when he resigned to run for mayor of San Diego — easily defeating his Republican opponent, Carl DeMaio. However, his tenure as mayor lasted only nine months before it was brought down by sexual harassment claims from at least nineteen different women.
Filner resigned from his position as San Diego mayor on August 23, 2013. Later that year, he pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and battery charges involving three women. He was sentenced to three months of home confinement and three years probation.
Filner reportedly died on April 20 — Easter Sunday. He was 82.
