Four employees of the San Bernardino County Public Defender's Office have filed a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and widespread misconduct by managing attorneys.
The suit, filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court, named former Public Defender Gregory Christopher "Chris" Gardner and San Bernardino County as defendants. It centered on allegations of misconduct against Gardner, Chief Deputy Public Defenders Jennie Cannady and Geoffrey Canty, as well as Supervising Deputy Public Defenders Mark Shoup and Richard LaFianza.
According to a copy of the complaint obtained by KNX 1070, plaintiffs described work conditions for female support staff and attorneys at the office as "an 'Animal House' frat party sex atmosphere."
Plaintiffs alleged Gardner used his position as the county's top public defender to "obtain sex from female subordinates." He also allegedly had an extramarital affair with investigator Stacy Thacker, a plaintiff to the suit, who said she was coerced into the relationship.
According to the suit, Gardner took Thacker to a seminar, using taxpayer money, where he encouraged her consume alcohol. He then "took her to a hotel room ... to indulge himself sexually with her," the suit stated. When Thacker rejected Gardner's advances, he allegedly became violent and made threatening phone calls to her.
The suit alleged Gardner went so far as to engage in a car chase with Thacker, pursuing her onto a freeway and cutting her off after she threatened to reveal the affair to his wife.
Thacker claimed she made multiple attempts to end the relationship with Gardner, which he disregarded. She filed a police report against the attorney after he continued to harrass her and allegedly injured her arm during an altercation in Newport Beach.
"Regularly, I would ask him to leave me alone and he would agree to stop the pursuance of the romantic end of it, and then he would come back around with tying me to work projects that basically made me report back to him for everything," Thacker said at a press conference on Monday. "I attempted to transfer. I attempted to apply for other jobs. I was doing everything to get out of the situation, and it never seemed to come to an end until the day I reported it."
Thacker eventually complained to another public defender in the office about Gardner's conduct. She said her report was not investigated, nor was it "taken seriously."
Gardner's alleged pattern of behavior continued, she said.
Another investigator and plaintiff to the suit, Michelle Vanderlinden, claimed Gardner gave her work assignments engineered to get her out of the office so that he could proposition sex.
"When Vanderlinden did not want to have sex with him, he forcibly grabbed her hand and placed it onto his penis," the suit stated.
A female public defender and third plaintiff to the suit, Laura Alvarez, claimed to have reported to her supervisor a "hostile work environment" in the office as early as 2011. She claimed a junior attorney in the office had asked her if he could take pictures of her feet. That same attorney reportedly asked Vanderlinden for a pair of her shoes so he could "eat out of them."
"It was also reported to [Alvarez] that the lawyer had toenail clippings and dirty panties shipped to [the office," the lawsuit stated. "The lawyer even offered ladies $50 to give him their shoes."
Alvarez said she was retaliated against by office management after making her report, deemed a "bad lawyer," and forced to provide the names of all the women allegedly targeted by Gardner.
A fourth plaintiff, office assistant Gricelda Arciniega, alleged her superior rubbed his groin area in front of her and invited himself into her office where he made sexually suggestive comments. When she declined to engage in sex with him, the supervisor reportedly gave her a poor performance evaluation. Arciniega said he also repeatedly invited her into his office under the guise of assigning work, only to ogle her body.
"It was disgusting," Arciniega said at Monday's press conference.
Though not a party to the lawsuit, 38-year-old Damien Gibbs of Rancho Cucamonga was present at the conference, where he alleged Chief Deputy Public Defender Jennie Cannady made him a "sex slave" at her home and threatened to have him arrested for rape if he rebuffed her sexual advances. When Gibbs attempted to call her bluff, Cannady allegedly followed through on the threat and had him arrested.
Gibbs said he was detained for a few days in jail but was eventually released with no charges filed.
Online records indicate at least six criminal investigations of Gibbs in San Bernardino County, and one arrest in 2014. It is unknown whether any of those incidents are connected with Cannady's alleged conduct.
The lawsuit further alleged one attorney received oral sex from a young female employee in his office. Another allegedly accessed pornographic websites while on the job and used a county-issued vehicle to take colleagues to a strip club.
Gardner resigned as public defender in December of last year with little explanation. Since March 2021, he has been working at the San Bernardino office of a private criminal-defense law firm.
In a statement relayed to KNX 1070 on Tuesday, a spokesperson said the county "takes allegations of harassment, sexual misconduct, and retaliation very seriously and immediately conducts full investigations into any and all reports of misconduct."
The county would not comment as to whether it would be launching an investigation into the allegations at this time.
This is a developing story.
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