Former Staffer Claims Sheila Jackson Lee Fired Her After Rape Allegtion

Former Staffer Claims Sheila Jackson Lee Fired Her After Rape Allegtion

Believe all women, right? Isn’t that what the left has been saying since the #MeToo movement began?

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) faces a lawsuit from a former staffer who claimed the congresswoman fired her after she said a former employee of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) raped her in 2015.

From BuzzFeed News:

The woman, identified in court papers by the pseudonym Jane Doe, alleges she was raped in October 2015, when she was a 19-year-old intern for the CBCF, by the foundation’s intern coordinator at the time, Damien Jones. The woman said she reported the alleged rape to police and told several people, including Rep. Terri Sewell, her former boss and a distant relative of her mother’s, but did not pursue legal action at the time.

Several years later, when Jane Doe was working for Jackson Lee, the woman decided she did want to pursue legal action, and told Jackson Lee’s chief of staff Glenn Rushing in early March 2018. The woman alleges that she asked to speak with Jackson Lee about it, but a meeting never happened, and several weeks later she was fired. Jackson Lee is chair of the board for the CBCF.

Jones did not return requests for comment. After leaving the CBCF in late 2015, he continued to work in Democratic politics and recently served as the regional political director for former representative Beto O’Rourke’s Senate campaign. Chris Evans, a spokesperson for the O’Rourke campaign, said in an email to BuzzFeed News, “The Beto for Texas campaign was absolutely not aware of these allegations until today and no longer has a relationship with Damien Jones.”

Rushing told BuzzFeed that Jackson Lee’s office “had nothing to do with any of the actions that have been cited and the person was not wrongfully terminated.”

The complaint detailed what happened to Doe:

According to the complaint, on Oct. 24, 2015, Jones invited Jane Doe to dinner, where she said he ordered a large quantity of drinks. She said that he then took her back to his home, poured more drinks, and that her memory became foggy about the rest of the night. She said she sent a series of text messages to a friend that night, including, “Help,” “I’m want t[sic] to go home,” and “I’m ready to cry,” and told the friend she was with the intern coordinator but did not know where she was.

The woman said she remembered Jones engaging in sexual activity with her, including forcing her to perform oral sex. In the complaint, she said she did not consent to any sexual activity. The next morning, she said she woke up naked in Jones’ bed “with his arms and legs around her,” and left. She said she experienced pain in her vagina and elsewhere on her body.

Jane Doe said later that day she texted Jones to ask what happened, and he replied, “Nothing. You threw up everywhere. That’s it.” When she asked why she was naked, he told her to call him. Jane Doe says that he told her that he took off her clothes and put her in the shower, and he denied they had sex.

Jane Doe said she went to a hospital and had a sexual assault exam. She later reported the alleged assault to the Metropolitan Police Department in DC — the lawsuit does not specify when — and, according to the lawsuit, investigators found sperm on the pants she was wearing the night she was with Jones, but couldn’t get a “sufficient DNA profile.” Police got a search warrant for Jones’ DNA and found his DNA on Jane Doe’s breast, and concluded he could not “be excluded” as the source of DNA on her neck, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit does not indicate whether anyone filed criminal charges “against Jones, and there is no record of a criminal case against him in District of Columbia Superior Court.”

Doe claimed that she met with people from the CBCF in November 2015. These people asked Doe for all communications she had with Jones and said they’d put Jones “on leave right away.” Jones left the CBCF in December 2015.

However, the CBCF invited Jones “to appear on a panel at the CBCF’s annual legislative conference in September 2017.”

Doe took a job in Jackson Lee’s office in 2017. She went to Rushing after she heard the congresswoman may hire Jones:

In late 2017, Jane Doe took a job in Jackson Lee’s congressional office. Soon after she was hired, according to the lawsuit, Jane Doe learned that Jones might be hired in Jackson Lee’s office, and she told Rushing that she had a “prior situation” with Jones and would not be comfortable working together. Rushing allegedly told her that he understood and didn’t end up hiring Jones “because he had a situation with CBCF and they could not have him working in the office as a result.”

In early March 2018, Jane Doe told Rushing that she had learned “more about her case involving Mr. Jones and CBCF” and was planning to go forward with legal action, according to the complaint. Jane Doe said she asked to speak with Jackson Lee, and Rushing agreed, but no meeting took place. On March 29, she said she was told she was being fired because of budget issues.

Jane Doe’s lawsuit describes times she said she spent driving Jackson Lee in her personal car she and alleges she was pressured by Jackson Lee and Rushing to get a new car after her car was damaged in an accident. When she was fired, she said that in addition to being told it was because of budget issues, that Rushing also told her, “It didn’t help that you lied about the car.” It was not immediately clear from court filings what that was a reference to.

Jane Doe alleges that the budget-related explanation was a pretext and that Jackson Lee retaliated against her for planning to take action against the CBCF related to the alleged rape.

[Featured image via YouTube]

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