Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Harassment Against Assembly Candidate Kotze-Ramos

Patricia Kotze-Ramos

By Brian Hews

Also alleges that Kotze-Ramos owned an adult sex toy business.

A lawsuit has been filed against a Cerritos and Downey area State Assembly candidate by a former female employee of her and her husband’s private company that alleges torrid sexual harassment claims as well as breach of contract allegations.

Click on image below to see complaint:

Los Angeles attorney David Olson filed a lawsuit on October 30 on behalf of his client Michele Cordova who is a former employee of Patricia Kotze-Ramos who is engaged in a heated campaign for a State Assembly seat in the greater Cerritos, Downey, and Bell Gardens area.

The civil lawsuit alleges sexual harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination, and breach of contract against Kotze-Ramos and her husband George Ramos, and at least two of their business entities Diversified Risk Management, Inc. and Employer Choice Online Inc.

Olson told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper in an interview on Thursday that Cordova previously worked for eight years for the Ramos’s until April, 2012, most recently as Director of Sales, Marketing, and Public Relations for the two.

The 24-page Complaint, filed in the Central District of the Los Angeles Superior Court alleges “a long history of sexual harassment directed against Ms. Cordova by defendants and further alleges the defendants terminated her after she had received years of positive work reviews,” Olson said.

“Ms. Cordova alleges she was terminated shortly after she complained about being required to misrepresent herself as an attorney in sexual harassment training seminars the defendants gave to their clients,” Olson said.

Olson is a Principal in the Century City law firm of Clark & Trevithick, and claims to have been voted “one of California’s lawyers of the year in 2000” by a trade magazine.

“Ms. Cordova also alleges she was required to provide personal services to the defendants, such as answering phone calls for Ms. Kotze-Ramos’ adult toy business, house-sitting and baby-sitting for the Ramos’s, hosting parties for them, and serving alcohol at those parties, for which she mostly was not paid,” Olsen said.

Olson told LCCN that Patricia Kotze-Ramos and her husband George were in the “adult toy business” and operated an on line business called SensualMe.com. A search of the internet shows that a home page does exist for the service, but it appears to no longer be in business.

Kotze-Ramos fired back on Thursday afternoon by telling LCCN that “I have to give kudos for the imagination and creativity in these allegations but they are completely false.”

“Though creative with a theatrical flair, these allegations are absurd, outrageous and completely false,” Kotze-Ramos said. “Simply put, Ms. Cordova is a former disgruntled employee and she knows exactly why she is no longer our employee.”

Kotze-Ramos is presently in a heated campaign against Cristina Garcia.

Leo Briones, a campaign consultant for Garcia told LCCN “We do not believe it’s appropriate to comment on any pending lawsuit. In either civil or criminal cases, our American system of justice is clear that people are innocent until proven guilty. What we do feel is appropriate to discuss is that Mrs. Kotze-Ramos has only voted in three of the last twelve statewide elections. Clearly, she has forgotten that the most basic responsibility of citizenship is to vote on issues of public importance.”

When asked about the timing of the lawsuit, just days before voters head to the polls to decide Kotze-Ramos fate, Olson said “this isn’t about the campaign or how voters cast their ballot. This is about outrageous harassment.”

Matt Kauble, who is the President of the Cerritos Republican Club, as well as a long time local political activist, told LCCN on Thursday afternoon “I view the lawsuit with great suspicion given when it was filed & how far away from the date of the events that were alleged to have taken place. Furthermore, that I would not be surprised if it is dropped after the election.”

“The timing of this lawsuit is suspicious given that it was filed within a week of Election Day over something alleged to have taken place over 8 years, prior to Ms. Cordova’s job ending over 6 months ago,” Kauble said.

“It also seems like something out of the Democrat Party’s playbook, i.e. the various lawsuits filed against former GOP Gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon that he won in court after having his name was dragged through the mud during his run for Governor versus former recalled Governor Gray Davis in 2002; or the last minute lawsuit filed by Gloria Allred on behalf of a former employee versus Meg Whitman, during her campaign for Governor as a GOP candidate in 2010; to name 2 instances that most voters might call to mind,” Kauble claimed.

“The filing of lawsuits against business leaders by former employees during the closing days of an election frequently seems to be at least partially motivated by political opportunism and my initial reaction to this lawsuit is that it reeks of political opportunism,” Kauble concluded.

Copyright by Los Cerritos Community Newspaper. Hews Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Republication with proper attribution. 2012.