#METOO 18 Years of Stories About the Mistreatment of Women in my Political Consciousness Part 1

People talk to me a lot. Most never go on the record so I have to store the stories until I can prove them independently or a mysterious manila envelope shows up to my home or office with papers in it. I’ve gotten anonymous emails with documents attached, blocked number phone calls, tapped on the shoulder at events by people I’ve only seen once and sometimes people I know well come up and tell me their story.

I’ve written a lot lately about a lot of things. I want to issue a content warning as this series I am going to write is going to be sometimes graphic and emotionally disturbing.

There are some things that shake me to my core. I can only relate the feelings I have gotten, listening to the stories of the abused and seeing the fear, pain and helplessness in their eyes as they relate to me the treatment they have endured at the hands of so-called Conservatives (yes and some liberals, too) in the Capitol.

Many of you remember Roger Hernandez who got little more than a slap on the wrist when he was caught whaling the tar out of his then wife? Remember Mike “Spanky” Duvall? This paragon of family values was having sex with a lobbyist who had actual business before the committees he sat on:

“She wears little eye-patch underwear,” said Duvall, who is married with two children. “So, the other day she came here with her underwear—Thursday. And so, we had made love Wednesday—a lot! And so she’ll, she’s all, ‘I am going up and down the stairs, and you’re dripping out of me!’ So messy!”

Duvall was once heralded as a leading voice for family values.

No one can forget Roy Ashburn who got in to a DUI accident late at night with a young man in his car. Ashburn was another of those heralded for being a solid pro-family vote.

Just months before he termed out, Ashburn was arrested for drunk driving after leaving a Sacramento gay nightclub. Days later, he came out.

We’d heard stories about all three, but they were whispers. When the news about Duvall and Ashburn exploded, none of us were surprised.

With Marc Steinorth under fire for an affair and Devon Mathis under fire for allegations (yet to be fully proven) of sexual assault, I felt it was time to start writing about the horrific stories I’ve been told over the years. If Harvey Weinstein’s sudden collapse causes this culture to be exposed, he will have inadvertently done the world a service.

What I know of Devon Mathis’ situation is that he liked to go out drinking with his staff, a lot. When I have personally seen Mathis at CA GOP Conventions, he has been intoxicated. As I sit here with long-term sobriety, it is easy for me to label every heavy drinker I see as an alcoholic. I don’t know Devon well enough to have an opinion on that, but why the hell was an Assembly member drinking with his staff? Why was Devon Mathis regularly seen at the house of Justin Turner near Sacramento State? Why did I hear about this pattern from a ton of people?

I do know the Chief of Staff Devon Mathis had when this went down. It is my understanding that Sean Doherty was fired by the Assembly Rules Committee in a similar manner to Steve Davey was. I will catch everyone up on the monster known as Steve Davey in the next post, but suffice to say Mr. Doherty is reputed to have similar set of issues and is reputed to be a heavy drinker in addition to his penchant for making life miserable for the female employees in the Sacramento office. The aforementioned Justin Turner has worked in that operation longer most anyone else working for the Mathis operation, what did Turner see in Sacramento while Devon Mathis did nothing or worse participated in it? Was it actually Sean Doherty the committed the offense that Devon Mathis is accused of? Did Mathis allow it to happen? Or did they BOTH do stuff like that?

To be continued…