A former chairman of the California Democratic Party is accused in a lawsuit of forcibly performing oral sex on a male subordinate and threatening him to keep quiet, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The lawsuit from William Floyd, a former party employee, is against former chairman Eric Bauman, the California Democratic Party, and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. The former assistant to Bauman says he was first assaulted after falling asleep in a hotel and waking up to his boss performing oral sex on him, and that there were two more instances where he was forced to submit to Bauman.
The lawsuit also says the party failed to properly respond to Bauman's conduct and then took action to try to make Floyd quit.
Bauman, who resigned due to other sexual assault allegations, denies the allegation from Floyd, according to the report.
Floyd, who is now 28, began working as Bauman’s assistant in 2016, when Bauman was chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. Floyd says Bauman assaulted him at least three times and groped him on numerous occasions. In his lawsuit, Floyd alleges Bauman threatened him, telling him "if you cross me, I will break you."
Bauman resigned late last year after other allegations of sexual misconduct became public. He denied Floyd’s allegations through his lawyer.
"We have not yet been formally served with this lawsuit and have only learned about the filing of it through media inquiries this evening," Bauman’s lawyer Neal Zaslavsky said in a statement. "Mr. Bauman denies the allegations in the complaint and looks forward to complete vindication once the facts come out."
Floyd says he told senior members of the party about incidents with Bauman before he was forced to relocate.