Rape suit against campaign worker settled

A lawsuit brought by a state employee alleging that a fellow worker on the campaign of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy raped her has been settled for $1 million, her lawyers said Friday, wrapping up a case that reinforced perceptions of misogyny in state politics and led to a legislative investigation.

The state and the Murphy campaign will pay $400,000 to Katie Brennan’s attorneys and $600,000 to a charity of her choice, The Waterfront Project, a nonprofit that offers legal aid to poor people, older adults, veterans and people with disabilities in northern New Jersey’s Hudson County.

“All survivors deserve the excellent support I had,” Brennan said in a news release. “I hope to create that support for others so that a lack of legal representation is never a barrier to justice.”

Neither side admitted wrongdoing.

Brennan’s lawsuit named the state of New Jersey, the Murphy campaign and Albert Alvarez, the man she says sexually assaulted her in April 2017. Brennan’s lawyers said Alvarez has agreed to meet with Brennan and to attend a class about sexual harassment. Alvarez did not immediately offer any comment. Murphy called the settlement “fair and reasonable.“

“We’ve worked collaboratively and constructively with Katie and her team to institute meaningful reforms to support survivors in the workplace,” he said during an unrelated news briefing. “We look forward to continuing our work on these issues to make New Jersey a leading state for survivor-centric policies, as we have been dong now for a long time.”