Santa Clara councilman quits, says he didn’t harass
A Santa Clara city councilman facing a spate of sexual harassment allegations resigned from office and suspended his campaign for Santa Clara County supervisor Tuesday, but he continued to deny allegations that he’d made inappropriate advances toward young women and girls.
The allegations against Dominic Caserta, 43, came to light last week, after the personnel file for Caserta, a civics teacher at Santa Clara High School, was sent out, apparently inadvertently, to the staff of the Santa Clara Unified School District. A former campaign worker, Lydia Jungkind, 19, and Caserta’s campaign manager told San Jose Inside that he had sexually harassed her, and other complaints have been filed with Santa Clara police.
Jungkind was a student in a civics class Caserta taught at Foothill College in the fall of 2017 and later worked on his campaign. She told The Chronicle that his behavior in the classroom was inappropriate; she said he referred to her as “Miss Germany” and made demeaning com-
ments about women.
She said things worsened after she joined his campaign as part of her classwork. After the semester ended in December, he asked her to stay on, and she agreed. He touched her thigh inappropriately, she said, and regularly made comments about her appearance and those of other women in the office.
“He treated men and women very, very differently,” she said.
Jungkind filed a police report detailing Caserta’s behavior, and said she hopes to see him face criminal charges.
Caserta, who has been on the Santa Clara City Council for 12 years, denied all allegations in his statement Tuesday.
“Reading the papers, online reports, and watching the news is too much for my family and me to bear,” Caserta said in his statement. “I have decided to resign my seat on the Santa Clara City Council, something that is against every instinct in my body.”
Caserta maintained his innocence and said his accusers were politically motivated.
“Political adversaries are motivated to discredit my candidacy, bury me professionally and personally,” he said. “I will not let that happen.”
Caserta touted his 20 years of teaching and noted he has twice won Santa Clara High’s Teacher of the Year award.
“The allegations against me are false in every sense of the word, yet I have been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion without due process or recognition of my distinguished service to the school or the city,” Caserta said.
The personnel file documents allegations of misconduct by Caserta dating to 2002, including unwanted hugging, inappropriate comments and flirting with high school students.
In one instance described in the personnel file, Caserta allegedly ran his hands through a female student’s hair, said he was sexually aroused and made sexually suggestive comments about her clothing. Police reportedly were called to the school twice in 2002 in response to allegations that Caserta had sexually harassed students.
As allegations mounted, Lisa Gillmor, the mayor of Santa Clara, called on Caserta to resign. His resignation came on the same day he was expected to address the situation at a City Council meeting.
Caserta did not say whether he planned to keep his position as a high school teacher.
Teresa O’Neill, a council member in Santa Clara, said she was glad Caserta resigned, but added that she was disappointed by the text of his statement.
“I am relieved that Dominic has done this, but I’m a little concerned about the language in his press release,” O’Neill said. “He certainly does deserve due process, but I would have hoped that he would take some more responsibility.” Jungkind felt similarly. “I feel very relieved that he resigned as a City Council member and stopped the campaign, but I read his press statement and I was very saddened to read that he thinks of himself as victim now,” she said.