Jacobs case draws in mayor

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered that Mayor Eric Garcetti be deposed in a sexual harassment lawsuit involving his former top aide.

Judge Ruth A. Kwan advised attorneys to schedule Garcetti’s deposition to begin no later than Jan. 30, 2021, in the sexual harassment case brought against the city by Garcetti’s longtime bodyguard, LAPD Officer Matthew Garza.

Garza alleges he was sexually harassed repeatedly by former Garcetti advisor Rick Jacobs and that the mayor witnessed some of the inappropriate behavior but did not stop it.

Garza’s attorneys pushed in recent weeks to take the mayor’s deposition, while attorneys for the city argued that Garza’s legal team needed to meet the threshold for showing that the mayor must be deposed.

City attorneys wanted Garza’s attorneys to first depose lower- level staffers and do other discovery.

At a hearing Thursday, Kwan said Garcetti’s possible “failure to act” to stop Jacobs’ alleged harassment of Garza made him a critical witness for Garza’s attorneys to depose.

There were instances of alleged misconduct where “Garcetti was the only witness present,” she said.

Garza’s attorney, Greg Smith, said he plans to conf ine his questions for the mayor to inquiries about Jacobs, Garza and whether or not other allegations of impropriety were made against the former mayoral aide.

“The court came to the right conclusion,” Smith said. “This is not an indifferent boss or absentee boss hearing about sexual harassment.”

“This is a case of the mayor of the city of Los Angeles who sets the policies for the city witnessing first hand on multiple occasions sexual harassment and failing to protect a city employee,” Smith said.

Jacobs has denied harassing Garza and has called his lawsuit “pure f iction.” Garcetti has also denied witnessing the alleged harassment outlined by Garza.

Garza sued in July, alleging that Jacobs made crude sexual comments and touched him inappropriately over several years.

Smith said Garcetti’s deposition could be done in person or via video.

Kent Nishimura Los Angeles Times MAYOR ERIC Garcetti joins protesters and clergy members in June on a downtown L. A. march prompted by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.