New docs in SWCPD sex case

Recent filings in a two-year-old sexual assault case involving members of the Southwestern College Police Department present a far more detailed account then had been previously known of an alleged attack inside a storage room in the department’s headquarters building.

The original complaint, filed in February 2017 by a former female student worker identified as “Jane Doe,” alleged, among other things, that former student employee Kevin McKean sexually assaulted her in the storage locker and that former Emergency Management Officer Joseph Martorano aided and abetted McKean by luring her into the locker. Doe also alleged in her complaint that she was repeatedly sexually harassed by her former supervisor, SWCPD officer Ricardo Suarez.

The new filings include a declaration by Doe that lays out in excruciating detail her allegations of what happened to her in the storage locker. They also include a cross-complaint by Suarez in which he alleges that Doe illegally recorded their interactions.

All of the alleged actions occurred between October 2014 and October 2016, during the tumultuous tenure of former SWC Police Chief Michael Cash. Cash, according to many accounts, ran a dysfunctional and corrupt department. Among the complaints:

• In August of 2013, Cash fired his gun in police headquarters and the bullets narrowly missed three college employees.
• Cash routinely filed late and inaccurate campus crime reports.
• The department failed to adequately provide police escorts for sexual assault victims who had requested protection.
• Overspent his budget by $1 million.
• Illegally hired and armed friends who were former San Diego Police Department officers.

Doe did not report the alleged sexual assault by McKean to Cash or other authorities. However, she did report comments made by Martorano to Cash and alleges that he mishandled her complaint. Cash was placed on administrative leave for undisclosed reasons in early 2017 and resigned in Sept. with paid leave until December 2017.

Current Police Chief Dave Nighswonger and President Dr. Kindred Murillo were hired in 2017, shortly before knowledge of Doe’s suit became public. Suarez was put on paid administrative leave while his alleged actions were investigated by “an independent party” hired by the college, according to Murillo. Murillo has refused to comment on any aspect of Doe’s suit nor has she commented on the results of the college’s investigation into Suarez’s alleged actions.

On Feb. 12, The Sun filed a California Public Records Act request with the college for documents relating to sexual assault allegation during Cash’s tenure. The request cited newly implemented Senate Bill 1421, which makes records having to do with police misconduct public. a police accountability bill.

The college did not respond to The Sun’s request within the 10-day time limit specified under the Public Records Act.

Doe’s Allegations

Here are details of what Doe alleged happened in the storage room:

On a day in January 2015, Martorano told Doe she was needed by McKean in the storage room. This was not uncommon, Doe’s declaration states, because the room contained equipment that was used by numerous campus police employees for traffic control. The room was largely dark, only partially lit by a small window, Doe recalls in her declaration. Doe was not surprised by the lights being off but was caught off guard by McKean’s presence, the declaration states.

“As I turned the corner, I saw McKean in the back of the room,” the declaration states. “I was surprised that he was already inside waiting for me.”

McKean grabbed her as soon as she turned the corner and forcefully unzipped her sweater after he pulled her close to him, the declaration states. He then bent her over the sink by the back wall and put his hands around her neck as he pressed up against her, the declaration states. The declaration goes on to state that McKean slapped Doe in the face, kissed her and then turned her around and forcefully bent her over to face the sink.

“He (McKean) pushed his genitals or loins up against my buttocks,” Doe states in her declaration. “At some point, he tried to choke me. I was terrified.”

Doe slapped McKean and only escaped when he slapped her a second time, according to Doe’s declaration.

“I went back toward the door while I zipped up my sweater,” Doe states in her declaration. “All of this happened very quickly, and all I wanted to do was to free myself from McKean’s hold on me.”

When Doe broke free, she went towards the door and found it shut. Doe’s declaration states that there would be no reason for Martorano to have closed the door without leaving it propped open for her and McKean to exit.

Doe’s original complaint states that she did not report the alleged attack because she was “traumatized, humiliated and feared further humiliation and reprisal from her command.”

No declaration by McKean is currently on public file with San Diego Superior Court.

A response to Doe’s original complaint filed on behalf of Martorano denied all of her allegations. It also states that the statute of limitations has run out on the acts the complaint alleges he committed.

Doe’s attorneys responded that Doe is filing under a gender violence claim, which has a three-year statute of limitations. Doe filed her suit less than three years after she alleged the attack happened, her lawyers state in their response.

“Martorano controls in his summary judgment motion that Plaintiff’s sexual harassment claims against him are time-barred by a one-year statute of limitations under the Fair Employment and Housing Act FEHA,” the document reads. “However, (Doe’s) claims against Martorano are for aiding and abetting McKean in his sexual assault (Gender Violence), which is governed by a three-year statute of limitations outside the FEHA.”

Questions about recordings

In addition to the allegations again McKean and Martorano, Doe claims in her suit that Suarez, who she reported to, continuously sexually harassed her during her two years of employment. The original 2017 complaint states Suarez’s sexual harassment of her began during the fall of 2014 when Suarez returned from leave. Suarez asked Doe for nude photos, inquired about her sex life and shared unsolicited information about his own sex life, Doe’s complaint alleges. It goes on to allege that Suarez told Doe to grow her hair longer because he liked to pull on hair during sex and provided other examples of his sexual preferences.

“One particularly egregious act of sexual harassment occurred when Suarez told Doe that ‘seeing your mouth open gives me dirty thoughts about you,’ and confirmed that he imagined Doe performing oral sex on him,” her complaint states.

The complaint goes on to allege that Suarez would arrange meetings with Doe, including one in the campus parking lot, when they were both on duty.  Suarez would initiate “vulgar and sexually explicit” conversations with Doe during these encounters, the complaint states.

A cross-complaint filed on behalf of Suarez indicates there are audio recordings of interactions involving Doe and Suarez that states Doe’s actions were improper and unlawful since Suarez was under the assumption that all interactions were not being recorded.

“(Suarez) was not aware that his communications with (Doe) were being secretly recorded by Doe’s cellular phone,” the cross-complaint reads. “(Doe) was secretly recording these confidential communications without (Suarez’s) permission or knowledge. These confidential communications were willfully, deliberately, maliciously and intentionally recorded by (Doe) by means of an electronic device.”

Exact dates of the recordings and transcripts of the audio were not provided in the public court filings.

Doe’s response to Suarez’s cross-complaint states she was legally permitted to record Suarez without consent given the nature of their previous encounters.

“There was no intrusion into a private place, conversation or matter when Jane Doe recorded Suarez’s conversation with her,” the answer to Suarez’s cross-complaint states. “They were outside in the campus parking lot, and Suarez did not conduct himself as though he was imparting private information. He was openly talking in a vulgar manner with her. Anyone who passed by or was within an earshot of his conversations with Doe would have heard him. He did not whisper in her ear. Suarez did not, and could not, expect that his harassing conversations with Doe be kept confidential.”