Lawmaker accused of sexual harassment by former staffer countersues

California lawmaker accused of sexual harassment by former staffer countersues

By Anabel SosaStaff Writer

Nov. 15, 2024 2:29 PM PT

In the latest development in a salacious Sacramento legal saga, a California state senator this week filed a countercomplaint against her former chief of staff — who alleged she sexually harassed him while he worked for her — claiming that he was involved in the 2001 murder and disappearance of Washington intern Chandra Levy.

State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil (R-Jackson) alleged that former staffer Chad Condit once warned her he “knows how to make people disappear,” according to court papers filed in Sacramento County Superior Court on Tuesday.

Condit, according to the lawsuit, was referring to his personal involvement in the unsolved murder of Levy, who worked for Condit’s father, former Rep. Gary Condit (D-Ceres), with whom she allegedly had an affair.

According to the suit, the senator began to look into the Levy case for the first time after Condit’s alleged comments.

Attorneys representing Condit called her allegations “meritless” and “baseless” in an email to The Times.

“This appears to be another attempt by the Senator to retaliate against Mr. Condit and cause him and his family further harm for daring to stand up to her and blow the whistle on the Senator’s misconduct,” wrote Arya Rhodes, an attorney on the case. “We look forward to a vigorous examination of Senator Alvarado-Gil’s behavior and state of mind and to get this matter to trial as expeditiously as possible.”

Gary Condit was not a suspect in the Levy case. Another man was convicted of her murder, but in 2016, a judge dismissed those charges after deciding prosecutors could “no longer prove the murder case” against him beyond a reasonable doubt.

Alvarado-Gil’s lawsuit is the newest allegation of a scathing back-and-forth that involves the senator and her former aide, who in September filed a lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court claiming that for a large part of 2023, Alvarado- Gil had “engaged in erratic, controlling, sexually dominating abuse of authority and power” against him.

Condit served as Alvarado-Gil’s chief of staff from her election in December 2022 until he was fired nearly a year later. Alvarado-Gil asserts in the lawsuit that Condit was fired because of “misconduct.”

The suit also alleged that Condit made remarks that if she were a man, he would “kick [her] ass.” She also alleged that he carried deadly weapons, including firearms, while working for her.

Alvarado-Gil says she “began to fear for her life and for her family’s safety” after Condit became “increasingly unstable and unpredictable.”