A US woman senator, who has been accused of forcing her former chief of staff to perform sexual acts on her, had introduced a bill against sexual assault in the California Senate just months after firing him for allegedly refusing her advances.
In a video posted on X, Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil talked of the prevalence of sexual assault and violence in the US while seeking support for her bill.
"April is National #SexualAssaultAwarenessMonth, and I am leading the charge with Senate Bill 268 - my bill will address a critical gap in the state's criminal justice system by reclassifying the rape of an intoxicated person as a violent felony," she wrote.
In the video, Alvarado-Gil said an American is sexually assaulted every 73 seconds and the crime affects people of all genders and sexuality.
"If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please know that it is not your fault," she said in the video, asking citizens to help "end sexual violence".
The bill which sought to make rape of an intoxicated person a violent felony and sought stricter punishment for sex crimes was passed in the senate on August 31.
"Sexual quid pro quo"
Alvarado-Gil's former chief of staff, Chad Condit, has alleged that she maintained a "sexual quid pro quo relationship" with him that left him injured in the back and hip.
Mr Condit started working for Alvarado-Gil when she contested for Senate in 2022 and was appointed chief of staff when she was elected.
He alleged that the senator pressured him into performing sex acts on her while they went on work trips over the years to protect his job.
On one such occasion last year, Condit alleges, he suffered a severe back injury when he was forced to "twist and contort" as he performed oral sex on her in a car. The act left him with three herniated discs and a collapsed hip, the suit alleges.
When Alvarado-Gil continued to seek sexual favours, he used the back injury as an excuse to reject her advances which made her retaliate, he alleges. She issued a disciplinary letter that accused him of inappropriate behavior.
"Erratic, controlling" boss
After he repeatedly turned down her sexual advances, Condit alleges he was fired in December. He told her he was undergoing back surgery for the injuries he sustained, he added.
"This was a sex-based quid pro quo relationship of unwelcome advances and sexual behaviors coupled with punishment and flexing of power," he says in the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, Mr Condit details his harrowing ordeal trying to navigate a professional relationship marred by "sexually dominating abuse of authority and power" by an "erratic" and "controlling" boss.
Alvardo-Gil's lawyer has rubbished the allegations and hit back at the former aide, calling him "disgruntled".
"A disgruntled former employee has fabricated an outlandish story, presented without evidence, to get a payday. We expect that the senator will be fully cleared of any wrongdoing of these bogus, financially motivated claims," he told the New York Post.
Alvarado-Gil made the switch from her Democratic party to the Republican party last month after claiming that the party had become unrecognisable under its current leadership.
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