A judge issued a new ruling Friday in the case that led to the resignation of San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher. The judge said social media content related to the sexual harassment allegations against him can be used in his defense.
Grecia Figueroa, his accuser, said she was fired from the Metropolitan Transit System after filing a lawsuit against Fletcher, her superior at the time and chair of the MTS board. Figueroa’s Instagram and Facebook social media content was the focus Friday, as she had filed a motion to block a subpoena from Fletcher’s legal team.
Relevant content:
Attorney Sean McKaveney said Figueroa had deleted messages essential to his defense. Figueroa, representing herself, disagreed.
Get San Diego local news, weather forecasts, sports and lifestyle stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC San Diego newsletters.
“Putting aside the fact that he was my supervisor at work, that voice message exonerates him of nothing. The defense and Nathan Fletcher, the defendant, forget that consent is given in person, not on Instagram,” Figueroa said.
McKaveney said the deleted messages, and more to come, would prove that all his client's interactions with Figueroa were consensual. Communication between the two has already come to light as seen in our NBC 7 report.
"The subpoena does not seek her entire Instagram account. It's content related to direct messages directly between her and Mr. Fletcher. It seeks content directly reflecting stories or posts, where they viewed each other’s profiles,” McKaveney said.
Figueroa said she was wrongfully fired because of her lawsuit against Fletcher. She testified in court that she wants to keep further social media content private to protect her family and friends from being targeted.
“The defense used this trip that I took to Peru, to my home country Peru, with my counselor to sort of invalidate her rights to be my counselor,” Figueroa said.
Figueroa also told NBC 7 about occasions where her friends were intimidated or targeted by people in Fletcher’s camp.
In the end, the judge denied Figueroa’s request to keep her content out of the defense's hands but required them to stay away from her user account passwords, credentials and geographic information. McKaveney testified those limitations were already part of the subpoena’s attached protective order.
“We have strong reason to believe that there is other additional evidence that we will recover via the subpoena that will further clear his name of wrongdoing," McKaveney said.
Figueroa, who represented herself Friday, told NBC 7 that she's lining up a new lawyer.
Fletcher has recently filed his own lawsuit, suing Figueroa for defamation.
Court will resume next week.
