Judge dismisses former MTS executive’s lawsuit over emails of Fletcher accuser

A Superior Court judge has dismissed a retaliation lawsuit that a former tech executive filed against the Metropolitan Transit System in the wake of sexual-harassment allegations that drove former board chair Nathan Fletcher from elected office.

The dismissal of claims brought by former MTS chief information officer Emily Outlaw came weeks after a judge ended a former public relations specialist’s harassment suit.

“MTS’s motion for summary judgment is granted,” Judge Gregory W. Pollack wrote in his Aug. 29 decision. “There is no triable issue of fact whether MTS is entitled to a judgment in its favor as to Outlaw’s (claims) and Outlaw has abandoned her other cause of action.”

Grecia Figueroa, the former MTS public relations specialist, filed a lawsuit against Fletcher and the transit agency in March 2023 accusing him of sexual assault and harassment. The most serious allegations were later withdrawn.

Early last month, the judge dismissed Figueroa’s claims against MTS, and weeks later he threw out her remaining claims against Fletcher after finding that she wrongly deleted evidence sought by the defendant’s legal team.

Both lawsuits — Outlaw’s case against MTS and Figueroa’s claims against the agency and its former board chair — were dismissed before trial.

Both plaintiffs have until next month to appeal the decisions.

Outlaw sued MTS in March 2024, almost one year after Figueroa’s suit was filed. The former executive said the agency wrongly asked her to access Figueroa’s private messages.

“As a senior executive, I refused to participate in actions I believed were unlawful because my personal ethics and professional integrity do not allow support of this conduct,” Outlaw wrote in an open letter following the dismissal. “The public deserves transparency from its institutions, particularly a taxpayer-funded agency entrusted with serving the community.”

To support her allegation, Outlaw released an internal MTS email from an executive assistant to the agency’s senior lawyer. “I was able to download her two personal email results,” the Nov. 9, 2023, message said.

MTS lawyers rejected the assertions, saying Outlaw’s claims were “demonstrably false.”

“The court’s order granted MTS’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit and confirmed that no such ‘hacking’ occurred,” attorney Nadia Bermudez said by email.

Fletcher resigned from the MTS board and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in the spring of 2023, acknowledging what he said was an inappropriate relationship with Figueroa but denying her allegations that he sexually harassed and assaulted her.

The former county supervisor later sued Figueroa for defamation. That legal dispute that remains unresolved.