On April 21, 2013, plaintiff Stacie McKenzie, 53, a district manager for the city of San Diego’s Park and Recreation Department, claimed that she was sexually harassed and battered by former city mayor Robert Filner at an event held at Mission Bay Park. McKenzie sued Filner and the city of San Diego, the employer she shared with Filner. McKenzie alleged that Filner’s actions constituted sexual harassment, battery and gender violence. She also alleged that the city failed to prevent the sexual harassment. Before trial, McKenzie dismissed the claim of gender violence and her claim for punitive damages. The trial addressed her claims of sexual harassment, battery, and failure to prevent harassment. McKenzie contended that when she approached Filner at the party to introduce herself as an employee of the city, Filner asked her on a lunch date and inappropriately touched her hands. Specifically, she claimed that Filner asked her whether or not she was single, told her that he did not ask her to lunch for professional reasons and said, “Just to be clear, this is not a business lunch. This is a date. I am asking you out on a date.” McKenzie claimed that, moments later, during a conversation with two park rangers, Filner approached her from behind, wrapped one of his arms around her neck, and rested his elbow on one of her breasts. She alleged that Filner then made disparaging comments about her to the park rangers and touched her buttocks. Specifically, McKenzie claimed that Filner taunted her, embarrassed her, and stated that he “likes to get really close to [his] city employees.” Plaintiff’s counsel played one of the park rangers’ video depositions at trial, during which the park ranger testified that it seemed that Filner had rubbed/caressed McKenzie’s breast in a sexually gratifying manner. The court also permitted, over defense counsel’s objections, a former member of Filner’s mayoral staff to testify at trial that she had been sexually harassed by Filner and that Filner asked her not to wear underwear at work. Filner testified that he did not remember whether or not he had put his arm around McKenzie, but claimed that he would never have intentionally touched her breasts or buttocks. He also denied the claims of sexual harassment, battery, and gender violence. Defense counsel noted that during a pre-suit, internal investigation of the incident, McKenzie told officials in the city attorney’s office that Filner’s arm had not touched her breast. Counsel also noted that McKenzie’s written complaint to the city’s equal employment opportunity office and the transcript from McKenzie’s interview with the county sheriff’s office made no reference of Filner touching her breast or buttocks. Defense counsel further noted that McKenzie explained at trial that she had tried to provide the most accurate, possible description of the incident to city officials before filing a lawsuit, that Filner had not touched her breast, and that she could not explain why she failed to tell the sheriff’s department about Filner touching her buttocks. Thus, defense counsel argued that Filner never touched McKenzie’s breast or buttocks., McKenzie claimed that she suffered from physical and emotional distress, embarrassment, mental anguish, and inconvenience. She also claimed that she will require psychological counseling service and treatment to resolve the emotional distress the incident caused. Thus, McKenzie submitted a risk claim, seeking recovery of $500,000 in damages for her emotional distress. Defense counsel, relying on McKenzie’s email records, argued that McKenzie had joked about the incident with several co-workers and that McKenzie did not sustain any significant emotional distress stemming from the incident. Counsel also shared content from McKenzie’s Facebook page, which alleged showed that she was a happy person and that she was a member of a social media group whose members supported a recall campaign against Filner after several women had complained that he had sexually harassed them. In addition, defense counsel noted that McKenzie referred to Filner as a “pig” in a Facebook post and that during her deposition testimony, McKenzie lied about having made that comment.