Kevin Ortiz, the co-president of the Latinx Democratic Club, has taken a leave of absence from his position following a San Francisco Chronicle report published Friday that detailed allegations of sexual assault in 2021.
The club, saying it was “extremely concerned” about the allegations, also announced in a press release Monday that it would investigate the charges outlined in the article. “We understand the importance of addressing these concerns and their impact on our community,” the club wrote.
On Friday, the club still listed Ortiz as a co-president with Deldelp Medina, but Medina resigned in a weekend Medium post. “As a survivor, I recognize that no one is the worst thing that they’ve ever done,” she wrote without mentioning Ortiz. “Yet, to create healing accountability and responsibility has to be at the center of the work. I hope that the club and its leadership do that hard and needed work.” Medina added that she would focus on her run for the San Francisco school board.
Ortiz’s name was also gone from the club’s website, which listed two interim acting chairs: Bahlam Vigil and Michael Rouppet, an AIDS activist and the president of the board of Marty’s Place, an affordable-housing site for people with HIV.
Jim Quadra, the attorney representing Ortiz, called the charges against Ortiz “completely unfounded,” and said he and his client are considering their options, including a possible defamation lawsuit.
“Mr. Ortiz is adamant about his innocence, and he is not going to sit back and take it,” Quadra said.
The Chronicle’s report details allegations and a police report made by Zahra Hajee, who is now living in Los Angeles and working as the communications director for Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath.
Hajee said in an interview with Mission Local on Monday evening that she wanted to see Ortiz take responsibility for his actions.
“I’m a strong believer in that you are not your worst actions,” she said, adding that the first step to restorative justice “is accountability, and if that doesn’t happen, the rest cannot happen.”
“I look forward to seeing what comes of the investigation,” she added.
Hajee told the Chronicle that she filed a police report describing the alleged incidents after Quadra sent her a cease-and-desist letter on April 24 of this year. He also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Sasha Perigo, who accused Jon Jacobo, another Latinx leader, of an alleged rape in 2021. Perigo posted on social media the same day she received the cease-and-desist letter, calling for the community to hold men like Ortiz accountable.
The alleged incidents outlined by the Chronicle include unwanted touching, fingering and kissing. They took place in March and April of 2021 when Hajee, now 26, was working for state Sen. Scott Wiener, and then U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla.
Ortiz, who is now 30, was a field representative for Rep. Nancy Pelosi from January 2020 to June 2022.
Quadra, his lawyer, called these acts consensual and provided the Chronicle with text messages to support his case. The Chronicle’s report included some of the texts, and described others as “exchanges in which Hajee, after the two incidents, repeatedly sought to get together with Ortiz, sometimes late at night, with Ortiz declining.”
Quadra forwarded the same two-dozen texts from March 4 to May 30 in 2021 to Mission Local. The alleged incidents took place on March 4, which Hajee alerted a friend to through a text message reported by the Chronicle, and on April 28 that year.
Between March 4 and April 28 of 2021, when the second alleged incident occurred, there are 10 text messages, according to what Quadra shared. Most of these concern work issues, including questions about an ID, loan forgiveness and Hajee’s announcement that she’d taken the job with Padilla.
On Tuesday, April 6, 2021, Ortiz asks what she’s up to, and Hajee reports that she is with her parents. He wants to know if they can “kick it,” and she asks if he is free Wednesday night, which would have been the following night. It is unclear if they ever met.
Hajee could not recall. “We had interactions in person and [text]. We ran in the same circles.”
“We did continue to interact, but I had brought up to him during that time frame that I was not okay with it,” she added. “I never received a response.”
On April 28, the day of the second alleged incident, Hajee texts “I need to drink LOL Are you free after 8.”
“Yes lolol.” Ortiz responds. “Me too. Where do you want to drink at?”
Hajee told the Chronicle that on April 28, she confronted Ortiz about the first evening, but allowed him to come to her house where, the Chronicle reported, Ortiz was again aggressive and Hajee felt violated.
After the April 28 alleged incident, 10 more texts were exchanged, according to the texts that Quadra shared. In these, Hajee asks Ortiz, “What’s open late in the mission” on May 14, and if he is awake at 1:50 a.m on May 15. Later in the afternoon, Ortiz asks “wya ” — or Where you at? —and Hajee says that she is at 16th and Valencia streets. Ortiz says he is at KH Liquor on 16th Street. It’s unclear if they met.
Other texts ask Ortiz about coming over to hang out and “maybe cuddle.” At times, both Hajee and Ortiz refer to being drunk or drinking.
On May 19, Hajee texts Ortiz at 12:35 a.m. that she is getting drunk with her roommates and asks if Ortiz wants to come over. There is some back-and-forth around being sober or drunk and Ortiz responds, “It’s just a bit inappropriate if you’re inebriated, don’t ya think” and later suggests just putting that idea “in the parking lot.”
It’s unclear if the texts that Quadra shared are a full account of the texts exchanged between the two during that period. Hajee said she had not seen the texts.
When asked on Monday if she had confronted Ortiz in texts, Hajee said that she did not. Moreover, she said, her ongoing interactions with Ortiz illustrate someone in survival mode. “I was violated in a severe way … the natural response is to move into denial that this didn’t happen, or there is something that I could have done better. That was the mode that I was in.”
The response from other survivors since the Chronicle published its account, she said, has been overwhelming and heartening.
Hajee reported the incidents to Pelosi’s office on Jan. 1, 2022, according to the Chronicle. A second woman, who was unnamed in the Chronicle report, also reported a similar 2019 incident with Ortiz to Pelosi’s office.
Ortiz, who currently works in public relations, left Pelosi’s office in June 2022. Pelosi’s office has not yet returned our request for comment, but has said it does not comment on personnel matters.
The Ortiz allegations are the latest in a series of accusations that prompted the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee to name a special body at the end of April to develop a code of conduct for local Democratic Party clubs.
The first accusation came in August 2021, when Sasha Perigo published a seven-page document, detailing her allegation of an April 4 rape by rising Mission District politico Jon Jacobo. She declined to file a police report and the district attorney never pressed charges, but it is unknown if the police and DA’s office ever fully investigated Perigo’s allegations.
After dropping out of the political scene for a bit, Jacobo resurfaced in 2023, representing the Mission Vendors Association. While Perigo declined to get the criminal justice system involved regarding Jacobo in 2021, three other women did file police reports in in 2021, and The San Francisco Standard detailed those accusations on April 16 of this year. The report included allegations of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence.
Jacobo has since dropped out of political life and resigned from his executive position at TODCO, an affordable-housing developer.
After the Standard’s report, online chatter and the Democratic County Central Committee referenced another Latinx leader, which prompted Quadra’s April 24 cease-and-desist letters to Hajee and Perigo.
The DCCC committee has held one public meeting and three closed meetings, but said it is not investigating individual cases.
This is a developing story and we will update it when we have more information.
Yet another train wreck
Seems weird Hajee came up with texts to a friend from 2021 for the Chronicle story, but tells ML she has not seen texts Ortiz provided for this story (there could be a logical explanation, who knows).
The other thing to come out is the DCCC committee mentioning of these allegations came two days after Hajee filed the police report, which Tung would have presumably been made aware of. Not mentioned in this ML piece is that both Hajee and the anonymous accuser expressed skepticism of the DCCC committee to the Chronicle (that article is available paywall free on reddit).
It is all about the hypocrisy of the hack parade imposing rituals of neoliberal identity politics court onto everyone as a means to whack them politically when they fail on the merits, meanwhile violating the standards they’d impose on others, getting paid to mark time and accomplish so little politically, especially when it comes to race or sex justice.
Huh? Who are you saying are the hacks? People like Ortiz or the people calling him out for sexual assault?
Oh my! This woman tarnishes every legitimate victim of sexual abuse.
Hi, Tom. That’s not a thing. We don’t say that about people reporting kidnappings, or robbery, or any other crime. Why would we say it about this crime? Be specific.