A Democratic former California assemblywoman and community activist says she called Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) in May to ask for an immediate investigation into a drugging and molestation allegation dating back to 2007 against Rep. Tony Cardenas (D., Calif.) and never heard back from Pelosi's office.
The woman, Patty Lopez, said she left a message with a Pelosi aide and requested a return phone call to provide more context about her concern, but the minority leader's office never called her back.
She said other community activists also reached out to Pelosi's office expressing the same concern and called on the Democratic leadership to press Cardenas to at least temporarily step down from his committees and leadership positions. They too failed to receive a response from Pelosi, according to Lopez.
"I'm really upset with my party," Lopez told the Washington Free Beacon. "Pelosi didn't do anything. They didn't even return our calls, and she didn't call me back. She didn't even take the time to talk to the people who made the protest last time."
"How are we going to protect our families, our daughters, our moms if everybody looks the other way when allegations like this come up?" Lopez said, noting that she and others are planning another rally outside Cardenas's office Friday. "That's why we're going to have a rally, so we can raise awareness. Everyone is so focused on [Judge Brett] Kavanaugh but nothing happens on Cardenas, and he is going to be on the ballot [in November] and that's going to impact our community."
Pelosi's office on Thursday said it has no record of Lopez' phone call.
"We have no record of this call," said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill. "Had this call come into our office, we would have advised the caller that Leader Pelosi has called for an Ethics Committee investigation and that the caller should contact the Ethics Committee staff directly if they have any relevant information."
Both Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) called for an ethics investigation into the allegations against Cardenas in May when they first became public.
It is unclear whether the House Ethics Committee has jurisdiction over allegations that date back to 2007, when Cardenas was a member of the Los Angeles City Council. However, the Ethics Committee could have jurisdiction since the accuser's father worked for Cardenas, although it is not clear how long he did so and whether that time included Cardenas' tenure in Congress.
There are other cases of the Ethics Committee opening investigations into matters that occurred before the member entered Congress, such as the case against Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D., Nev.) who agreed not to run for re-election after two women alleged sexual misconduct that predated his time in Congress.
The Ethics Committee has yet to announce whether it has launched a probe into the allegations against Cardenas.
Lopez was one of 20 community activists who participated in a protest outside Cardenas Van Nuys office in May two weeks before the state Democratic primary election and just weeks after a lawsuit was filed by an anonymous woman who says Cardenas drugged and fondled her during a golf outing in Los Angeles in 2007 when she was 16 years old.
His campaign did not respond to a Free Beacon inquiry about the planned Friday protest and renewed calls for him to resign from Congress and step down from his leadership posts, including as the director of BOLD PAC, the Hispanic Caucus' political action committee while the court weighs the allegations against him. He also currently serves as the co-chair of the Crime Prevention and Youth Development Caucus.
Cardenas, through a public-relations specialist speaking for his attorney, has firmly denied the allegations.
The public relegations specialist, Patricia Glaser, released a lengthy statement in May, unequivocally denying the allegations and pointing out that "there is still no new information to corroborate these untrue accusations."
"It saddens us that these falsehoods appear to be the work of dirty politics, timed weeks before voting in a congressional campaign. Our client's innocence will be established during the course of the litigation," she said. "For the moment, California law allows the alleged victim to remain anonymous and to bring her allegations as Jane Doe. But during the litigation, the father, his daughter, and the congressman will testify under oath. In that process, the congressman expects to be fully exonerated."
Lopez, an immigrant from Mexico who married a U.S. citizen, is now a well-known political activist in the community.
Lopez surprised longtime Democratic Party faithful in the district in 2014, unseating fellow Democrat Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra despite being a novice politician. The loss "sent shock waves" beyond the San Fernando Valley District, according to Los Angeles Times coverage of the race.
Bocanegra, who benefits from the same longtime Valley political faction as Cardenas, came back in 2016 and knocked off Lopez. A year later, amid the #MeToo movement, Bocanegra was forced to resign the Assembly seat after facing multiple allegations of sexual harassment from adult women.
Lopez took part in a demonstration outside Bocanegra's office last fall before he resigned. She also joined the May protest outside Cardenas' district office, along with approximately 20 other people, including two of Cardenas' Democratic primary opponents.
Lopez said the allegations against Bocanegra hit very close to home because her daughters had interned for him before the sexual harassment allegations became public. She said she heard rumors about his sexual harassment allegations against him before she ran against him and told her daughters to stop interning for him.
"I am a mother of four, and you trust your kids in an office setting. My daughters went to help Mr. Bocanegra when he was in office," she said. "They were interns because they were in high school and need to do some community hours. But when somebody told me, and I got more involved in politics, did you know that Mr. Bocanegra has these allegations against him? You should be aware because your kids are there."
"I told my kids you're not going anymore to that office. Now there years after, we found out it was true, and people tried to cover [it] up," she said. "There was so much intimidation of these women to go forward in public."
"I've been seeing the news about the judge [Kavanaugh], and they don't do anything about Tony Cardenas because he is Latino and has raised money for the party."
Back in May the group of Democrats calling for Cardenas to resign included Kelly Gonez, a member of the Los Angeles Unified School Board. Other Democrats also complained that Pelosi and prominent Latino Democrats, both on the state and national level, were trying to ignore the lawsuit and serious charges of sexual misconduct leveled against Cardenas.
"The powers that be are shuffling it away," Joe Shammas, one of Cardenas' primary opponents, told the Los Angeles Daily News at the time.
This week, information about a similar protest is circulating in the district in both Spanish and English. Cardenas' GOP opponent, Benito Bernal, a former longtime Democrat who switched parties in recent years, is also circulating a flyer among the community highlighting the molestation case against Cardenas.
The flyer includes a quote from a Daily News editorial arguing that "Cardenas case deserves full investigation."
"Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Sotelo ruled last week that there is 'a reasonable and meritorious basis' for the lawsuit to go forward, and he allowed attorneys to name the Los Angeles political and serve the suit against him," the flyer says, quoting the Daily News.
The flyer asks voters if the Jane Doe accuser can "count on you?"
"On November 6, 2018 the voters of Congressional district 29 can show this young woman their support and vote Congressman Tony Cardenas out of office," the flyer continues.
"Make the right choice, the only choice, no matter how you are registered to vote," the flyer says. "Vote for Benito Benny Bernal for Congress, District 29. A Father, Community Leader, Youth Mentor, Advocate & Coach."
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D., N.M.), the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has reportedly relayed concerns to Cardenas privately about the lawsuit and allegations, although she has not asked him to step down from running BOLD PAC.
Under Cardenas' leadership, BOLD PAC has increased its fundraising from $1 million to $9 million this cycle. It has doled out numerous political donations, including to several California Democratic candidates who have not responded to questions about whether they plan to return the money in light of their outspoken criticism of Republicans' handling of sexual misconduct allegations dating back 26 years against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Update Oct. 8, 11:43 a.m.: The original version of this post said Kelly Gonez participated in a protest against Cardenas. She did not part of this protest, but she did issue a statement calling on Cardenas to resign.