Lawyers Spar Over Lobbyist's Harassment Claims Against Lawmaker

"Mr. Dababneh unequivocally denies the occurrence of the incident of sexual harassment that you allege, or any other act of sexual harassment by him against you, at any time", his lawyer wrote.

"It was Matt Dababneh", Lopez told The Times in a November interview.

Lopez filed a complaint with the Assembly Rules Committee and told her story to an assembly hearing without naming the lawmaker.

"Just this last weekend, I met a woman who told me that her daughter is interning in Matt's office", she said. She sent a letter to lawmakers Monday claiming the three-term Democrat followed her into a bathroom during a 2016 party in Las Vegas, blocked the doorway and began masturbating.

Lopez says she made a decision to go public with the allegations following a call by the Assembly Rules Committee for alleged victims to come forward and name names. "And I can't have it on my conscious that this may happen again".

"I felt the weight of a body push me into the restroom", Lopez's letter reads. When she went to the bathroom, she wrote, he blocked the door, dropped his trousers and urged her to touch him. Glaser wrote that Lopez' claims against Dababneh are false and warned that, if she repeated them at the press conference or anywhere else, "you will be held fully accountable in damages".

"Prior to Ms. Barker's article, I had never seen or been told of, any inappropriate behavior by Assemblyman Dababneh, or any disparagement of women", Sherman told HuffPost in a statement. "Before the ordeal ended, he told me not to tell anyone". He noted that the layout of the room where the party was held would make it hard for any such incident to go unnoticed.

Glaser also leads the legal team representing Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood movie mogul facing numerous allegations of sexual harassment and abuse. Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra resigned last week, and Sen.

Pamela Lopez, a Sacramento-based lobbyist, first publicly described being assaulted as part of the #MeToo campaign seven weeks ago, but kept her perpetrator anonymous, citing fear of retaliation. Tony Mendoza denies wrongdoing.