Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil (R–Jackson) is being sued for sexual harassment by her former chief of staff.
Former Chief of Staff Chad Condit filed a lawsuit against Alvarado-Gil in the Sacramento County Superior Court on Thursday claiming the State Senator asked him to perform oral sex on her to prove his loyalty, which resulted in him injuring his back.
The backstory: Alvarado-Gil was elected to represent Senate District 4 in 2022 and hired him as chief of staff. He had worked as her campaign manager for a few months before the election.
- Alvarado-Gil also hired her childhood friend Vanessa Bravo after she was elected. Condit claims in the lawsuit that Bravo had no experience and was being positioned to take over his job.
- Alvarado-Gil fired Condit in December 2023.
The big picture: Condit alleges in the lawsuit that Alvarado-Gil began grooming him within the first six months as chief of staff, leading to a dominant relationship from her where she repeatedly demanded oral sex.
- The lawsuit states that Condit and Alvarado-Gil never had sexual intercourse. Both of them are married.
- Condit claims Alvarado-Gil repeatedly engaged in erratic, controlling and sexually dominating behavior, abusing her power and authority as a State Senator.
- “This was a sex-based quid pro quo relationship of unwelcome advances and sexual behaviors coupled with punishment and flexing of power,” the lawsuit reads.
Go deeper: Condit claims in the lawsuit that shortly after he was hired, Alvarado-Gil began to share her personal and intimate life story with him, including her dating life, divorces and how her current husband cheated on her.
- She allegedly got her own house, dog and a lifetime free pass to cheat on her husband “out of the deal.”
- Alvarado-Gil would allegedly openly talk about her sex life and drug use, which included cannabis gummies and Ayahuasca.
- She insisted that Condit share his tracking location on his phone with her and asked if he would rent a home in Sacramento with her and Bravo.
- Condit claims Alvarado-Gil had him pick up her daughter on several occasions and insisted that he be her daughter’s first customer for a haircut after her daughter began going to cosmetology school.
- In March 2023, Alvarado-Gil allegedly asked Condit what his feelings were about “throuples” and if he and his wife would be interested.
- She also told Condit “that she prefers short black men and old white guys” like him in front of other staff.
- One time Alvarado-Gill called Condit into her hotel room after a crab feed in Mariposa, saying she bumped her head. Condit went to her room and then left to get her ice. When he returned, “she was sitting on the edge of the bed with just a t-shirt on.” She told Condit that he looked like Brad Pitt.
- Bravo allegedly told Condit that Alvarado-Gil was bipolar.
- Condit claims that Alvarado-Gil first asserted her control and power over him in a sexual way by demanding he perform oral sex on her to show her loyalty during a trip to Inyo County.
- “They were driving together and they pulled over to go to the restroom,” the lawsuit reads. “When he came back to the car, she had her pants pulled down and said, ‘I want you to kiss it and prove your loyalty.’ She had her legs spread and turned towards him exposing her vagina. Her direction was for him to submit to her demand and to orally pleasure her vagina.”
- The lawsuit states that Condit “was numbed and acted without thinking” after months of being in a dominant-submissive relationship with her.
- Condit claims he performed oral sex on her “on several occasions,” and that she treated it as a perk of her power.
- During the last time that Condit performed oral sex on Alvarado-Gil, he suffered a back injury while doing so “in a car seat with his body having to twist and contort in the confined space of the car.” Condit suffered three herniated discs in his back and a collapsed hip from the incident.
- Condit began to refuse to Alvarado-Gil’s later demands for oral sex after the incident, “which made her unhappy with him.”
Flashback: This is not the first time Condit and Alvarado-Gil have feuded publicly this year.
- In May, Alvarado-Gil filed an ethics complaint with Attorney General Rob Bonta requesting an investigation into how Condit pursued funds for infrastructure improvements in south Modesto.
- Alvarado-Gil also made headlines last month for switching party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.
What they’re saying: “A disgruntled former employee has fabricated an outlandish story, presented without evidence, to get a payday,” Alvarado-Gil’s attorney Ognian Gavrilov said to KCRA. “We expect that the Senator will be fully cleared of any wrongdoing of these bogus, financially motivated claims.”
