A Superior Court judge on Friday dismissed a sexual harassment lawsuit against former Supervisor Nathan Fletcher that shook the political landscape in San Diego two years ago.
Judge Matthew Braner threw out the lawsuit by Grecia Figueroa, a former employee of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, where Fletcher served as chair of the board.
The suit alleged Fletcher directed MTS executives to fire Figueroa after she came forward with allegations that Fletcher sexually assaulted her and was sending her explicit messages.
Fletcher, who was the face of the county’s health efforts during the pandemic, denied the allegations and said the two had a consensual relationship.
The former supervisor resigned in May 2023 and ended his campaign for state Senate.
Last week, Braner also dismissed Figueroa’s wrongful termination lawsuit against MTS.
Then, in a tentative ruling on Thursday, Braner recommended dismissal of the lawsuit, saying “the litany of discovery abuses perpetrated by Plaintiff in this case warrants termination of her lawsuit.”
Braner said Figueroa engaged in “rampant and willful spoilation of evidence” in the case, which was set to go to trial next month. He ruled that too much evidence had been deleted or not turned over to the defense for the case to go before a jury.
The evidence at issue included numerous text and audio messages, some between Figueroa and Fletcher, and others between Figueroa and a close friend.
The tentative ruling was approved in a hearing on Friday.
In court, Braner said, “The evidence of discovery abuse in this case is overwhelming” and that there had been “delay, alteration, and destruction (of evidence) at virtually every phase.”
In a statement made in court, Figueroa said, “I find it quite disrespectful to invalidate my experience and call abuse of power an affair.”
She also said she had produced thousands of messages and other records to the defense, and sat through 25 hours of depositions.
“Nothing was deleted with intent to hide anything. In fact, I wish I had some of the missing evidence because I believe it would be helpful for me,” she said.
One of Fletcher’s attorneys, Sam Sherman, told reporters after the hearing, “We’ve maintained from day one that this case was built on a mountain of lies.”
Sherman declined to comment on what the dismissal might mean for Fletcher’s career going forward, but said Fletcher will continue to pursue a defamation countersuit against Figueroa.
“Nathan Fletcher takes responsibility for what he did and the mistakes he made, but he does not feel it was justified to destroy his career over it, to create these false allegations,”
A separate lawsuit against Fletcher continues, accusing him of using campaign money from his state Senate bid to fund his defense in the Figueroa case, Sherman said.
Following Braner’s dismissal, Figueroa said in a news release that she plans to file an appeal.
City News Service contributed to this report.
Updated 1:05 p.m. Aug. 8, 2025
