Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe ought to resign. And political allies who defend him ought to cease enabling his alcohol-fueled and misogynistic habits.
The discharge this week of an investigation detailing his sexual harassment, together with groping, of two subordinates whereas he was govt director of the Los Medanos Healthcare District must be the ultimate straw.
The investigation discovered ample proof that Thorpe grabbed the naked leg of one of many ladies, made inappropriate feedback to her and even commented that his habits constituted sexual harassment. And that Thorpe made inappropriate and vulgar feedback to the opposite girl, then grabbed her buttock.
Thorpe has denied the allegations and denigrated the ladies. He instructed the investigator that one of many ladies had come on to him. Separate from the investigation, a former good friend of the mayor says Thorpe instructed her that the ladies had concocted the story and that he used disparaging phrases to explain them.
To learn the investigation report, scroll to the underside of this editorial.
Thorpe is the chief of a Metropolis Council that's badly fractured between the conservative and progressive factions. He has exacerbated the division together with his remedy of his colleagues and his private actions. Earlier this 12 months, Thorpe survived a recall try that didn't qualify for the poll. However the newest info is essentially the most troubling and well-documented account of his habits.
Thorpe’s mayoral time period lasts via 2024. He shouldn’t be in workplace. If voters knew then what they know now, he wouldn't have been elected. For the sake of town, Thorpe ought to step apart.
The investigation was commissioned by the well being care district’s legal professional in September 2021 after the 2 ladies filed complaints of sexual harassment. The district was subsequently disbanded, with its property and liabilities turned over to Contra Costa County, which, in August, settled the claims for $350,000.
On Tuesday, in response to a Public Information Act request from this information group, the county launched the investigation report. Whereas Thorpe has referred to as the ladies’s claims “fully false,” the report — which thought of testimony from the ladies and 6 different folks in addition to supporting paperwork, together with textual content messages and Fb postings — presents a really totally different image.
The incident involving the primary girl occurred in June 2021 at an Antioch bar to which Thorpe had invited her and her boyfriend, who witnessed the leg-grab. The girl believed Thorpe was drunk, based on the account she gave the investigator. She and her boyfriend in separate interviews quoted Thorpe as saying, “That is sexual harassment, I ought to cease.”
The incident involving the second girl occurred in August 2021 at a piece convention in Monterey. Witnesses behind the lady and Thorpe noticed him strolling in a zig-zag style in line with alcohol consumption and hanging on to the lady. The girl recounted that Thorpe made a vulgar remark indicating he wished to have intercourse along with her after which grabbed her buttock.
Thorpe, in an October interview with the investigator, mentioned he had solely consumed two drinks that night time. 5 months after the interview, Thorpe was arrested for driving drunk. After the arrest, he issued a video assertion apologizing for his “lapse in judgment” driving after ingesting. Regardless of the apology, Thorpe has pleaded not responsible to the cost.
Thorpe additionally denied to the well being care district’s investigator that he had groped both girl final summer time. However the investigator discovered that a number of of Thorpe’s statements had been contradicted by different statements and proof offered.
Some individuals who know Thorpe effectively additionally haven't accepted his denials.
Metropolis Clerk Ellie Householder, a former ally, broke ties with him “due to his more and more erratic and hurtful habits,” she wrote in a Sept. 17 letter she posted on Fb.
“An individual I've loyally stood by for years has used his energy and affect over ladies to reap the benefits of them, and for this, I'm actually sorry. To the ladies; I'm sorry. I see you. I hear you, and I imagine you.”
Lacey Ferguson, an area progressive political activist and former Thorpe supporter, says she had been an occasional consensual sexual companion of Thorpe and was not claiming to be a sufferer. However, in a Sept. 18 Fb video, she defended the 2 ladies who filed the sexual harassment claims and mentioned she was talking out in opposition to the “tradition and historical past of misogyny that does encompass Lamar.”
Thorpe ought to resign not due to his politics however due to his habits. And the criticisms of that habits will not be, as a few of his defenders have urged, due to his race.
As Ferguson sees it, “Between Lamar and other people just like the proponents of the recall in opposition to him, our metropolis has been polarized into two teams. You're both 100% in assist of Lamar or you're with the racists coming after him for the incorrect causes — no room has been left for professional criticisms and he is ready to use this as a weapon in opposition to those that do want to communicate out in disagreement.”
It’s time for that to finish. Racism can't be tolerated. And sexual harassment can't be tolerated, particularly not from our elected officers. Thorpe ought to resign.