Trial for state treasurer’s harassment case delayed
SACRAMENTO — California Treasurer Fiona Ma’s sexual harassment trial was set to begin Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court, but has now been postponed until June.
Both sides arrived in court Tuesday morning but were told that because of scheduling conflicts at the court the trial needed to be rescheduled for June 17.
Judith Blackwell, the former employee, sued Ma in 2021, alleging the treasurer had exposed herself and crawled into bed with Blackwell when they shared rooms at a hotel and a rental property.
Ma has denied any wrongdoing and has said she looks forward to “bringing the truth to light in court.”
During the court appearance Tuesday, lawyers for Blackwell said they anticipated the trial would take seven days, while lawyers for Ma estimated it would take 10 to 14 days, noting that 30 witnesses could be called.
It’s unusual for one of the state’s top elected officials to be on trial. Ma plans to testify in her own defense, said Steve Maviglio, a spokesperson for the treasurer.
Jury selection could be challenging because Ma is a prominent political figure.
Ma, 57, served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, then in the state Assembly and the state Board of Equalization before being elected treasurer in 2018.
Shortly after being elected treasurer, she said she planned to run for governor in 2026 when Gov. Gavin Newsom reaches his term limit. But in 2023, she opted to begin a campaign for lieutenant governor instead.
Blackwell, who is African American, sued her former boss after she was fired, seeking punitive damages, civil penalties and attorney’s fees. In addition to sexual harassment, Blackwell also alleged that Ma had made racist comments and treated Black employees worse than those of other races, but the judge presiding over the case said that Blackwell couldn’t present evidence of racial discrimination at trial because Ma had demonstrated that she fired Blackwell based on her job performance. The judge also dismissed Blackwell’s claim that she was wrongfully fired in retaliation for her complaints.
“She exposed her bare rear end directly to Plaintiff on multiple occasions,” Blackwell’s attorney Waukeen McCoy wrote in the lawsuit. “Ms. Ma’s actions were intentional and not accidental, and it was done to get Plaintiff’s attention. Plaintiff was uncomfortable and was fearful to comment on Ms. Ma’s lewd behavior.”
In court filings, Ma denied the allegations. She denied touching Blackwell and said the incidents “were not sexual” but instead were “random, isolated incidents that do not constitute sexual harassment.”
In a ruling allowing the case to proceed to trial, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Christopher Krueger wrote that Ma herself indicated that “she called (Blackwell) into her room while half-dressed on three separate occasions and climbed into bed with her on a fourth.”
In her lawsuit, Blackwell says Ma encouraged her to share rooms with her in Sacramento instead of driving back to her home in the Bay Area after work. An investigation by the Sacramento Bee in 2021 found Ma frequently shared hotel rooms with staff during her first two years in office “to save money.” Another investigation by the paper found that Ma, a longtime San Francisco resident, charged taxpayers more for business trips to Sacramento during that time than any other statewide elected official, including those who lived in Southern California.