Ex-councilman, teacher Caserta files claims amid sexual allegations

City, school district both deny claims, but his complaints lay groundwork for future lawsuits

SANTA CLARA >> Dominic Caserta, the former Santa Clara councilman and high school civics teacher whose campaign for county supervisor unraveled last summer when accusations of sexual harassment by students and former campaign staff surfaced, has filed claims against the city and Santa Clara Unified School District.

The school district and the city have rejected Caserta’s claims, according to spokespeople for both. But by filing the complaints, Caserta established the legal groundwork to sue next.

In May, an employee of the school district mistakenly emailed Caserta’s personnel file to the entire district staff. The file showed multiple students had accused Caserta of sexual harassment as early as 2002, including one who alleged he ran his hands through her hair and told her he had an erection.

News website San Jose Inside also reported allegations by Lydia Jungkind, a former student at Foothill College, where Caserta also taught, and campaign volunteer who accused Caserta of making inappropriate comments and gestures and giving her an unwanted massage. A campaign staffer, Ian Crueldad, said Caserta walked around his campaign headquarters — based out of his house — in just a towel.

One student, Savannah Nunez, publicly

accused Caserta of stalking her when she was a senior in high school and claimed the district did nothing about her complaint. Nunez said Caserta repeatedly called her cellphone, stalked her at work and once visited her home to ask why she wasn’t answering his calls.

Caserta is seeking more than $10,000 from the school district, according to a claim he filed Oct. 30.

He blames school district employee Nora Dipko for the release of his personnel file, “apparently intended for outside counsel, to all of approximately 1,600 SCUSD employees.”

“I have been subject to public ridicule, have suffered irreparable harm to my reputation, my career and my ability to obtain appropriate future employment,” Caserta wrote in his claim. “As a result, I am also suffering from severe emotional distress and depression.”

In a separate claim against the city on Nov. 2, Caserta sought more than $10,000 for severe emotional distress, depression and damage to his reputation. He says Mayor Lisa Gillmor “publicly and purposefully humiliated” him and forced him to resign.

Caserta, who has been on paid leave from the school district pending an investigation, has vehemently denied all the accusations. He could not immediately be reached and his lawyer, Andrew Phillips of the Mlnarik Law Group, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in August that it would not be filing criminal charges against Caserta because there isn’t enough evidence.

The allegations against Caserta emerged a month before a June primary election in which he was running for county supervisor. He ultimately resigned from the Santa Clara City Council and suspended his campaign for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors after a number of high-profile groups pulled their support.