Ex-employee says he didn’t mean to send ‘panties’ email to district attorney. He sues
An employee at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office was laid off the day he emailed the district attorney and her entire staff a question about “panties,” a new lawsuit says.
Jovan Thomas, 56, says he meant to text a friend but accidentally emailed District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and his co-workers on Jan. 26, according to a complaint published online by Courthouse News Service.
“What color are your panties?” Thomas wrote in the email, the complaint says.
Before Thomas went to send what the lawsuit describes as a “playful text” meant as a “silly joke,” an email from Jenkins popped up with a calendar invite to an anti-discrimination meeting, according to the complaint.
Thomas, who worked at the district attorney’s office as a victim witness advocate since 2015, says he accidentally responded to that email with the “panties” inquiry, hitting “reply all,” instead of messaging his friend.
Later that day, Thomas learned he was being laid off without disciplinary action and that he could re-apply to work for the office in the future, the lawsuit says. However, a few days later he received paperwork saying he had been fired, according to the complaint.
Afterward, Thomas says the district attorney’s office made “false, fraudulent, malicious and humiliating statements about (him) to the press and others.”
Now he is suing Jenkins, her office, a few employees, and the city and county of San Francisco on several claims, including invasion of privacy and defamation.
The district attorney’s office referred McClatchy News’ request for comment to the city attorney’s office and declined to comment on July 23.
“Once we are served with the lawsuit, we will review the complaint and respond appropriately,” city attorney’s office spokesperson Alex Barrett-Shorter told McClatchy News on July 23.
‘Misogynistic behavior’
Thomas accuses the district attorney’s office of reaching out to the news media “within minutes” of him sending his email, according to the complaint.
After his email went out, Chief Assistant District Attorney Ana Gonzalez emailed employees, saying the message was “being handled by the administration” and requested staff to delete it, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The lawsuit says Thomas “immediately apologized” upon realizing “his mistake.”
“Absolutely no one who received (Thomas’) email could reasonably have believed that plaintiff had actually inquired of his boss, the District Attorney of San Francisco, what color panties she was wearing, either seriously or as a joke, much less in an email sent to the entire staff at defendant SFDA,” the complaint says.
Randy Quezada, Jenkins’ spokesperson, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Thomas was fired, the newspaper reported Jan. 26, the day Thomas says he lost his job.
“To be clear, there is no relationship between the District Attorney and the individual who sent this email,” Jenkins’ statement said, according to the newspaper. “This misogynistic behavior violates the office’s code of conduct and this individual has been terminated.”
Thomas, according to the lawsuit, believes the district attorney’s office told news outlets he had a history of sexual harassment and referenced a prior lawsuit that was filed against him.
In September 2018, a woman sued Thomas, accusing him of sexually harassing her when he was supposed to help her in a case in which she was a victim of gang violence, according to The San Francisco Standard.
Thomas was dismissed as a defendant in that case a year later, the outlet reported.
Thomas’ lawsuit says the district attorney’s office told the media that his email and the earlier lawsuit “were all part of an ongoing history of workplace sexual harassment and misogyny by (him), all of which was the reason that defendants terminated (his) employment.”
According to the complaint, Thomas has suffered severe emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, anger, disappointment and worry as a result.
He is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
This story was originally published July 23, 2024 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Ex-employee says he didn’t mean to send ‘panties’ email to district attorney. He sues."
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