California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (pictured) has won national attention for speaking out against sexual harassment, and was one of hundreds of Sacramento women who signed an October letter with the hashtag #WeSaidEnough protesting harassment. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo ‘Spin the bottle’ and a kegerator: #MeToo movement lawmaker faces new sexual misconduct allegations Staffers say California legislator presided over 'toxic' office.

SAN FRANCISCO — New misconduct allegations have been leveled against California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia — the high-profile #MeToo movement activist under investigation herself for alleged sexual harassment — including a claim that Garcia urged staffers to play “spin the bottle” after a political fundraiser.

David John Kernick has filed a formal complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing claiming he was dismissed from his job in Garcia’s district office for questioning the propriety of asking staffers to play the game.


Kernick, 38, who worked for the assemblywoman for five months in 2014, described to POLITICO an evening of heavy drinking in which Garcia ended up sitting on a hotel room floor with about half-dozen people — including her staffers and at least one male friend — and prompted them to play a game that results in participants kissing each other.

“It was definitely uncomfortable,’’ said Kernick, adding that the assemblywoman’s suggestion was met with discomfort and then ignored. “But I realized it’s different for a man than for a woman. … You know it’s inappropriate, but at the same time you may wonder, ‘How many women do you work for that act like that?’ You think … ’Maybe she’s just really cool.’’’

“It muddies the waters,” he said.

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Garcia has won national attention for speaking out against sexual harassment, and was one of hundreds of Sacramento women who signed an October letter with the hashtag #WeSaidEnough protesting harassment.

When Time magazine announced that “Silence Breakers” who spoke out against sexual misconduct were its Persons of the Year, Garcia’s photo appeared with the story.

But the Democratic assemblywoman from Bell Gardens near Los Angeles is now on an unpaid, voluntary leave of absence after POLITICO reported in early February she is facing a legislative investigation over allegations of sexual harassment and groping connected to a separate incident.

Last week, prior to filing his complaint, Kernick and three other ex-staffers issued an open letter to Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon charging that Garcia, a powerful Democratic lawmaker who until recently headed the legislative Women’s Caucus, presided over a “toxic" workplace where activities included regular heavy drinking with staffers, sexually charged meetings and raunchy conversations highlighting intimate details of her sex life.

The three other former Garcia staffers have remained anonymous. Two of them spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

In separate interviews, the former Garcia staffers said they left her office, in part, because of regular pressure to accompany their boss to alcohol-fueled evening events.

“It was a power imbalance,’’ one staffer said in an interview last week. “You’re telling me, ‘We’re going to go to a happy hour,’ and I don’t want to do that. It was something that was central — ‘We’re going to go out’ … and I was, ‘I don’t want to hang out with you, I want to go home.’”

The ex-staffer said employees worried about retribution from the boss if they didn’t go along, and that signing the public letter was “the opportunity to be heard” about an unhealthy workplace that often included “vulgar” conversations related to Garcia’s personal sexual experiences.

“It wasn’t a two-way street. It was usually just us listening,’’ she said. “I thought it was weird. It came off as sort of bragging.”

The second staffer, who worked in Garcia’s district office, said he recalled that the office furnishings included a refrigerator specifically designed to store wine bottles.

In addition to being asked to attend many late-night events with the assemblywoman at which alcohol flowed freely, the second staffer said there would be “team-building things like mimosas” in the office during work hours.

A Sacramento-based lobbyist who spoke to POLITICO corroborated their accounts of a free-wheeling and alcohol-fueled workplace.

The industry lobbyist said he was surprised last year when, during a late-morning policy meeting in Garcia’s Capitol office, the assemblywoman poured beer from a kegerator — a refrigerator with a beer tap on top — located in her office .

She offered the brew in red Solo cups to the group of lobbyists, even though it was “sometime between 11 a.m. and noon ... a little early,’’ the lobbyist said.

While drinking is not uncommon during long days and nights of budget negotiations, he said, being offered alcohol by a legislator during morning business hours in her office was highly unusual, especially during “non-deadline” days.

Garcia’s spokeswoman Teala Schaff, asked to comment on the presence of the beer tap in the assemblywoman’s office, wrote via email that “the assemblymember is on voluntary, unpaid leave until the investigation into the claim has concluded. As an employee of [the] Assembly Rules [Committee], I am not able to answer your questions.”

She referred questions to the Assembly speaker’s office.

The assemblywoman, who also chairs the powerful Natural Resources Committee, issued an initial statement after the POLITICO report of a legislative investigation that she had “zero recollection” of the alleged groping incident, but she later stressed she will fully cooperate with any Assembly investigations.

Last week, Garcia did not specifically address the new allegations but said in a Facebook post she will comply with any investigation and “I will address each of these issues individually after the investigations into these allegations are closed.”

But she also pushed back on the new accusations, saying “I am confident that I consistently treated my staff fairly and respectfully.’’ She added, “in a fast-paced legislative office, not everyone is the right fit for every position, and I do understand how a normal employment decision could be misinterpreted.”

Veteran civil rights attorney Dan Gilleon, who presented the former staffers’ open letter to the speaker’s office, said they were concerned that Garcia was “acting like a hero of the #MeToo movement” and assuming a public profile “that wasn’t anywhere near the truth.”

Kernick said he’s coming forward to raise concerns about a woman whom he says has become an icon of the #MeToo movement, but also to prove that in Sacramento, “powerful women can act the same way as powerful men.”

The assemblywoman has been shielded from criticism, Kernick said, while overseeing an office where treatment was often “malevolent," and in which alcohol use fueled hostility and mistreatment of staffers. A former Marine, he believes he was dismissed from the office because, as an older, more experienced staffer, he wasn’t as malleable and accepting as younger staffers were of the stressful, and often “malicious,” behavior within the office.

“Her drinking was a common thing,’’ he said. “We knew if we were going out, there would be drinking.”

Kernick’s complaint, filed Saturday and obtained by POLITICO, charges that his termination by the assemblywoman was a direct result of his resistance to the inappropriate behavior by the lawmaker.

The filing states that Garcia “was seemingly not critical of [Kernick’s] work until after he questioned the appropriateness of her suggestion that after a fundraiser at a whiskey bar that Claimant sit on the floor of her hotel room and play spin the bottle.”

The complaint alleges that “shortly after protesting this sexual harassment,” Garcia disciplined Kernick “with a write up for insubordination.” Two days later, according to the complaint, “Garcia fired him.”

Attorney Gilleon told POLITICO that Garcia’s actions “crossed the line and falls into the category of sexual harassment,’’ and said that with his actions, Kernick is one of the brave males “who’s come forward and now formally said, “#MeToo.”

“I hope it encourages others who are afraid” of retaliation in the state Capitol, he said.

Gilleon said the state could launch an investigation into the formal complaint, and Kernick now has a year in which to file a lawsuit.

Asked for comment regarding the complaint filed Saturday, Schaff said, “Personal matters are confidential and handled via Assembly Rules. Even if the member was not on voluntary leave from her position with the Assembly she would be unable to respond.”

Kevin Liao, a spokesman for Speaker Rendon, said, “We have not yet reviewed the complaint, and as a result, cannot comment further at this time.”

The new allegations leveled at Garcia by staffers last week prompted Delaine Eastin, a former state superintendent of public instruction and the leading Democratic woman in the California governor’s race, to say that the assemblywoman should prepare to step down.

“The old line is the kettle shouldn’t call the pot black,’’ Eastin said at a forum last week. “If you say this is my value, you ought to live up to the value you set.

“She should look in the mirror and say, “I called on these other men to resign. Should I?' … That’s where we are in danger right now. Integrity is really an important part of what we do here.”