A mistrial was declared over Gus Kramer’s misconduct charges in November
Blog note: This
article references a grand jury accusation
MARTINEZ
— Four months after a judge declared a mistrial in the misconduct case against
Contra Costa County Assessor Gus Kramer, the district attorney’s office has
decided to not retry the charges, prosecutor Chris Walpole confirmed to this
news organization.
The decision caps a
lengthy and unusual court case that began in 2019 after the Contra Costa County
civil grand jury investigated complaints that in various instances from 2013 to
2019, Kramer made sexual comments to women who worked in his office and uttered
an ethnic slur to a male employee.
The
civil grand jury had concluded in 2019 that Kramer should be removed from
office for “willful or corrupt” misconduct and creating a hostile work
environment, which kicked off a civil case that was prosecuted like a criminal
proceeding. A guilty verdict would have led to Kramer’s removal from office
instead of jail time.
But
at the end of the trial — during which Kramer’s attorneys maintained that he
was a victim of a smear campaign by ambitious women and a disgraced employee —
the jurors couldn’t all agree whether most of the allegations constituted
workplace harassment under state law or whether he should be booted from
office, and Superior Court Judge John Cope declared a mistrial.
The
only thing the jurors agreed on was that Kramer did not create a hostile work
environment for a young former employee who testified he made her uncomfortable
by saying she looked “hot” in a photo and squatted close to her at work.
Of
the allegations made by the four alleged victims, the jury had to establish two
things for each set of allegations — that Kramer indeed said what he said to
the employees, and whether that misconduct was sufficient enough to remove him
from office.
Walpole
said that in discussions with five of the jurors after the trial, they reported
that most of the jury believed Kramer said inappropriate things to the victims,
but the jurors were further split over the question of whether it was “severe
and pervasive” enough to constitute a hostile work environment.
“I
believe the victims wholeheartedly,” Walpole said. But after discussing the
case with an executive team in the district attorney’s office, they decided to
not proceed with retrying the three victims’ allegations over which the
mistrial was declared.
Michael
Rains, Kramer’s attorney, said he thinks “the facts just didn’t support a
finding that Mr. Kramer created a hostile work environment.”
During
the trial, witnesses testified that Kramer bragged to employees of his “conquests”
with women, made sexual comments about women’s bodies and sent inappropriate
text messages to one employee.
Another
employee said Kramer had told a graphic story or joke about people having anal
sex and had made racist comments to another employee, including using an
offensive ethnic slur when speaking to an employee and saying to him that
“white men would never vote for a f****** Mexican.”
Rains
had denied most of those allegations about Kramer in court, saying that while
two employees had indeed brought up discomfort with the assessor’s jokes or
comments in 2015, they all resolved it then via an informal agreement to
discuss only business matters. Kramer upheld that agreement, Rains said. The
allegations about Kramer making an ethnic slur were fabricated, the lawyer
maintained.
But,
Rains said in an interview this week, Kramer does not deny that some of his
behavior needs to change.
“It
was frankly a wake-up call to Mr. Kramer and a reminder to anyone who knows
about the case or heard about the case of the importance of how anyone conducts
themselves with co-workers,” Rains said. “He is aware that others in his office
do not appreciate comments or jokes that he thought were cute or funny. It was
and is a reminder to him to change his approach to folks and, frankly, to be a
little less familiar.”
Kramer,
who was re-elected to the assessor seat in 2018, has roughly two more years
left in his term. He ran against Supervisor Federal Glover for the District 5
Board of Supervisors seat, but lost in the November runoff election.
Walpole,
in an interview this week, said he fears the outcome of this case could have a
chilling effect on victims of sexual harassment or other misconduct who might
be afraid of having their allegations attacked and their honesty questioned.
“This
is a sad reminder of how difficult it is for women to come forward,” he said.
Margaret
Eychner, a former employee in the assessor’s office who was one of the four
main witnesses in the case and has stated publicly that Kramer sent her
inappropriate text messages and made comments she believes constituted
harassment, said she was disappointed in the decision to not retry the case.
“His
own attorney admitted in an article published after the mistrial that he did
the things he has been accused of and will change his behavior. He won’t. And
by not retrying him, he knows he can do whatever he wants to his employees —
again — and get away with it,” Eychner said. “On the other hand, I have done as
much as I could to bring his behavior to light and have suffered much through
the process. While I was prepared to testify again, I’m glad it is over for me.
I have not worked at the Assessor’s Office for well over a year and am on a
path to healing from the past several years there.”
There
will be one more hearing scheduled, likely in March, Walpole said. At that
hearing, he will file a motion to dismiss and the case will be over.
East
Bay Times
By ANNIE SCIACCA
Bay Area News Group
February 13, 2021
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