SACRAMENTO — Amid a continued outcry over the treatment of women in California’s Capitol, allegations have surfaced that in late August Sen. Tony Mendoza repeatedly invited a young woman seeking a job in his office back to his apartment.

The following month, three of the Los Angeles County Democrat’s staffers who knew about or reported the allegations to the Senate Rules Committee were fired Sept. 22 and signed confidentiality agreements, the Sacramento Bee reported.

It’s the second time in under two weeks that a sitting lawmaker has been named in media reports of misconduct. In late October, the Los Angeles Times revealed that now-Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, a San Fernando Valley Democrat who is part of the leadership team, was secretly disciplined after he was accused of groping a female staff member at an after-work event in 2009 when he was a legislative staffer.

Bocanegra went on to run a successful Assembly campaign with the support of numerous colleagues in the Legislature.

The latest case raises more questions about the integrity of an internal process through which sexual harassment reports are vetted and investigated. The chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, which receives such complaints, is Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León — Mendoza’s weekday roommate in a Sacramento-area apartment.

The 23-year-old woman who had been placed in Mendoza’s office as part of a fellowship program through Sacramento State had sought a permanent staff position as the 11-month program came to an end. She declined his invitations to look over resumes at his apartment — as well as his offer for her to stay overnight in his hotel room before an early-morning event, the Bee reported Thursday.

At an after-hours mixer, the 46-year-old senator — who is married and has four children — also allegedly asked her to come with him to a second party. She declined, but he later texted her a photo of himself and other male lawmakers at the party and repeated his invitation to come back to his apartment in Natomas, the Bee said.

In a statement released Thursday evening, Mendoza, chairman of the powerful committee on Insurance, Banking and Financial Institutions, attacked the Bee story as “misleading and irresponsible” and said the employee firings happened long before he had any inkling of a complaint.

“I would never knowingly abuse my authority nor intentionally put an employee into an awkward or uncomfortable position,” he said.

In his response, however, Mendoza did not answer a question from the Bay Area News Group about whether he had invited the young woman back to his apartment.

De León, D-Los Angeles, is running for U.S. Senate, challenging the powerful Democratic incumbent, Dianne Feinstein. Last month he announced the state Senate had appointed an outside investigator to handle harassment complaints — and another to review Senate rules and procedures.

A spokesman for the Senate leader said Thursday that De León had not been aware of any misconduct involving his roommate, including the alleged invitations to their apartment.

The Bee did not quote the young woman, who did not come forward publicly, or the fired staffers, who declined to comment. The newspaper based its report on information from multiple anonymous sources and written communications, including a message showing that the fellow had reported Mendoza’s behavior to her fellowship program director.

The Bee reported that all three aides — Chief of Staff Eusevio Padilla, legislative director Adriana Ruelas and scheduler Stacey Brown — knew about the allegations, and that at least two of them had discussed the senator’s behavior toward the intern with Senate Rules Committee staff members.

Through a spokesman for De León, Senate Secretary Daniel Alvarez disputed the timeline of the firings presented in the news story, saying “the employees in question were already terminated before any complaint referenced in the Bee story was made. There was no connection between their termination and the subsequent complaint.”

It was unclear, however, whether Alvarez was referring to the moment when the Senate received a formal, written complaint or when the Senate committee first became aware of the allegations.

“What we can say is that Senate Rules takes any allegation of inappropriate workplace behavior extremely seriously — and this is no different,” Alvarez’s statement said. “These allegations are being rigorously reviewed and investigated consistent with our legal process, employment standards and privacy protections — and has been for months.”

Mendoza said he was not called in for questioning and that he learned of the matter only when the Bee inquired about it this week.

On Nov. 28, the Assembly will hold its first public hearing to discuss its policies on sexual harassment investigations.

Organizers of the “We Said Enough” campaign, which brought national attention to a “boy’s club” culture in Sacramento and other statehouses in the wake of the allegations against disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, responded to inquiries about this latest case with renewed calls for reform.

“Independent investigations, public disclosure of settlements, victim resources and whistleblower protections are critical components to ensure the safety and dignity of the Capitol community — and to remove the cloak of secrecy over the existing complaint process,” they wrote. “It is clear that self-policing does not work.”