Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia Assemblywoman's former aide alleges whistleblower retaliation, illegal activity

OAKLAND — The former spokesperson for Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia has filed a government claim alleging that she was fired after being pressured to perform illegal actions at work, including leaking the personnel files of a staffer who alleged he was sexually harassed by the legislator.

Teala Leon, a longtime spokesperson for Garcia and a Capitol employee for two decades, filed the government claim Thursday, a necessary precursor to a formal lawsuit. The claim alleges she was subject of retaliation by the Democratic Assemblywoman — once lauded by Time magazine as a champion of the #MeToo movement — as well as Garcia’s chief of staff, Ashley Labar, and the human resources director for the Assembly, Tosha Cherry.


The legal action says Leon was fired in December after Labar ordered her to leak the personnel files of a former employee and whistleblower, David John Kernick. POLITICO reported in 2018 that Kernick alleged that Garcia kept a “kegerator” in her office and pressured employees to play “spin the bottle" with her in the Assembly office. Kernick said he was dismissed in February 2018 after questioning the propriety of those actions.

Garcia’s then-chief of staff, Tim Reardon, dismissed Kernick's charges and claimed Kernick should “open up his own personnel records” to reveal what was in them, but later denied to POLITICO he had a role in leaking them to media.

Leon's action says that "in an effort to discredit" Kernick, the assemblywoman and Labar obtained a letter from Reardon that the legislator's office used to justify Kernick's termination "and ordered Ms. Leon to leak it to the press."

The legal action also claims Leon and other staffers were ordered to do illegal campaign work for Garcia during office hours.

“Ms. Leon alleges she was terminated because Ms. Labar and Ms. Garcia feared she might report the leak of Mr. Kernick’s personnel records, the campaigning on Assembly hours, misuse of taxpayer resources and other unlawful and unethical activity and in direct retaliation for her refusal to perform campaign work" — and for reporting these actions to the Assembly's Workplace Conduct Unit. The unit was launched early last year to serve as a clearinghouse for whistleblower complaints.

Labar, reached by POLITICO, declined to respond to allegations in the lawsuit, saying, “We can’t comment on pending litigation.”

Garcia, responding via email, said, “We respect the process, therefore we legally cannot comment on pending litigation.”

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon also declined comment on the action, according to his spokesperson Katie Talbot.

But Christine Pelosi, chairwoman of the California Democratic Party women's caucus and general counsel to the #WeSaidEnough effort fighting sexual harassment, called Leon's allegations "very disturbing." If true, Pelosi said, it is "absolutely heartbreaking to see that the whistleblower process that [Leon] trusted was apparently used against her."

She added: "We've got to break the cycle of harassment — and you can only do that if you protect people."

Leon alleges that she was fired in a retaliatory action following an Assembly picnic last year. She alleges that Labar and Garcia ordered Leon detained by Capitol police and charged that she had been drinking, then “forced her to undergo a humiliating field sobriety test.” The test showed Leon was sober, according to the claim.

Leon says in the claim that two weeks after she filed a complaint about the incident to the Assembly Workplace Conduct Unit, she was fired and “given no reason” for the termination. The claim says “several other staff members” have since left Garcia’s office.

Labar, speaking to POLITICO, also declined to respond to that claim.

POLITICO first reported allegations that Garcia groped and harrassed another staffer, Daniel Fierro, after a legislative softball game in 2014. Fierro has filed a lawsuit, which recently advanced through the courts.