New research shows the California Legislature has paid out at least $1.9 million over the past 25 years to settle sexual harassment claims, all of that taxpayer money.
The research comes from Tuple Legal, a firm founded in 2017 by attorney and former Democratic Capitol staffer Ryan Hughes. He arrived at the number by compiling information from case settlements, court filings and media reports. He found the Legislature paid out an additional $306,000 for cases that may or may not have involved sexual harassment.
Hughes says the settlement agreements often protect the accused while exposing victims to potential and actual harm.
"It’s unfair to victims because their names are in these settlement agreements, media reports are generated with the victim’s names in it," he says. "And the Legislature goes out of its way to not include details about what happened and who was involved."