Nathan Fletcher's Accuser Drops Sexual Assault Claim — For Now

By Lisa Halverstadt and Will Huntsberry, the Voice of San Diego

January 5, 2024

The former Metropolitan Transit System employee who accused ex-county supervisor and MTS chair Nathan Fletcher of sexual harassment and assault has dismissed her most serious allegation against him – at least for now.

An attorney for Grecia Figueroa, whose allegations imploded Fletcher’s political career, recently sought to nix her claims of sexual assault and battery and gender violence — though her legal team left open the possibility they could be refiled. Figueroa’s lawyer also moved to permanently drop discrimination and retaliation claims against Fletcher tied to Figueroa’s February 2023 firing from the transit agency.

Figueroa’s legal team is still proceeding with three claims in its civil lawsuit, according to a recent court filing: sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and interference with prospective economic relations.

In a late Thursday statement via her attorneys, Figueroa said she remained committed to her case.

“I am focusing on the long-term sexual harassment claims, which still stand, and I am ready for a jury trial,” Figueroa wrote.

Figueroa has claimed that Fletcher forced himself on her on at least three different occasions. In the most serious allegation, Figueroa claimed Fletcher removed some of her clothing and put his mouth on her breasts in an MTS conference room. Her legal team reiterated that allegation in a recent filing even as it formally removed the assault claim from the civil suit against Fletcher and MTS.

No part of their relationship was consensual, Figueroa wrote on X in August 2023.

Fletcher, meanwhile, has adamantly claimed that all of their relationship was consensual. He claimed he made a “terrible mistake” by having an extramarital affair with Figueroa.

Figueroa “unequivocally consent[ed] to each of their interactions,” Fletcher’s legal team wrote in one filing.

Fletcher’s legal team has filed a motion to have all of the civil charges against him thrown out. A judge is scheduled to weigh that motion at a Jan. 10 hearing.

Sam Sherman, one of Fletcher’s attorneys, argued Thursday that the timing of the Figueora team’s decision to pull back many of her claims show they weren’t ready to make a case for them.

“It’s a clear sign from her that she lacks the evidence,” Sherman said.

Messages between Figueroa and Fletcher have long been at the center of the case, which has been going on for nearly two years.

In her initial lawsuit, Figueroa released several Instagram messages showing Fletcher pursuing her. But Fletcher claimed those messages didn’t tell the whole story.

In January of last year, Fletcher’s team released new batches of Instagram messages. In one exchange, Fletcher and Figueroa are flirting while an MTS Executive Committee meeting is going on. She asks Fletcher if he is staying late and to alert her whenever he is alone.

More recently, Fletcher’s attorneys have claimed that Figueroa deleted at least 15 messages between her and a friend, 10 News reported. Sherman accused her of destroying evidence and violating a court order to preserve her messages.

Sherman, in an interview with Voice, said some messages that Fletcher’s team obtained from her friend were missing from what Figueroa provided. A forensic analysis showed multiple messages from different time periods were deleted from Figueroa’s phone on the same date last August, he said.

In a Dec. 26 filing, Figueroa’s attorney, John Holcomb, argued that Fletcher’s team “mostly cherry-picked snippets of messages” in one of their recent filings. Holcomb also maintained that the former MTS staffer was groomed and then harassed by Fletcher, whose position as chair of the agency forced her to interact with him.

“But for Mr. Fletcher’s harassment of (Figueroa), a triable issue exists as to whether she would still be employed,” Holcomb wrote.

In a declaration last month, Figueroa emphasized how the interactions with Fletcher deeply troubled her even before she lost her job.

“I was miserable during the last eight months of my employment with MTS because of Mr. Fletcher’s advances and conduct. His advances severely disrupted my ability to work and pushed my emotional health to the breaking point,” Figueroa stated in the declaration. “On Jan. 3, 2023, I felt so trapped and overwhelmed by the mental anguish caused by Mr. Fletcher that I called the San Diego Access & Crisis Line, as I contemplated committing suicide.”

Fletcher’s team, meanwhile, argues that Figueroa’s allegations were devastating for him.

“Grecia Figueroa knowingly made patently false allegations that destroyed my client’s reputation and career,” Sherman wrote in a statement.

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit news organization supported by our members. We reveal why things are the way they are and expose facts that people in power might not want out there and explain complex local public policy issues so you can be engaged and make good decisions. Sign up for our newsletters at voiceofsandiego.org/newsletters/.