Third woman alleges sexual assault by San Diego mayor

Earlier this week, another woman filed a sexual harassment suit against Bob Filner

Published July 24, 2013 10:23PM (EDT)

A third woman has publicly accused San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment, alleging that in 2009 Filner tried to kiss her at a local restaurant.

Morgan Rose, a psychologist in the San Diego Unified School District, told KPBS News that she and her team had met with Filner about their children's initiative, but the mayor requested a private meeting with Rose at the restaurant.

From KPBS:

Rose’s initial excitement turned to confusion when she says Congressman Filner started staring at her. He then allegedly said, “your eyes have bewitched me.”

Rose states that Congressman Filner stood up, walked over to her side and sat down next to her and wanted to kiss her.

“He tried to move my face towards his to kiss me on the mouth,” Rose said. She turned away from him and remembers negotiating for him to stop.

Filner allegedly told her he would not continue the meeting until “you kiss me," and tried four different times.

Rose is the third woman to allege sexual harassment by Filner. On Tuesday, political consultant Laura Fink told KPBS that Filner patted her “posterior” in 2005 at a public event. Irene McCormack Jackson, who worked as Filner's communications director, filed a lawsuit against him on Monday  alleging "that he routinely grabbed Jackson, dragged her around in a headlock, asked that they have sex and, once, asked her to work without wearing panties," as the Los Angeles Times reported.


By Jillian Rayfield

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

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Bob Filner California San Diego Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment Video