The Latinx Democratic Club announced today that Kevin Ortiz is back as its president after an internal investigation did not support the allegations of sexual assault that were reported by the San Francisco Chronicle last summer.
Ortiz had served as the club’s co-president until early July, when he resigned days after Zahra Hajee, who was a former aide to Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, and a second anonymous woman went public with sexual assault allegations. The club, at the time, said it was “extremely concerned” about the allegations and would investigate them.
Its other co-president, Deldelp Medina, resigned a day after the Chronicle’s story, writing in a post on Medium that she supported restorative justice as a person healing from traumas that included sexual assault. In the post, she said wanted to dedicate her time to the school board election and called on the club to make healing accountability and responsibility the center of its work.
In a statement released Monday morning, the club said its special investigation committee, composed of four club members and three experts from an unnamed sexual violence prevention organization, found no evidence of wrongdoing.
“Following a deliberative process, the [committee] presented their findings, which did not support the allegations, to the Executive Board. Based on these findings, Mr. Ortiz has resumed his role as President of the San Francisco Latinx Democratic Club,” read the club’s statement.
The club did not say which organization supported the investigation, and kept the names of the members confidential. The investigation does not include Hajee’s testimony, as she decided not to participate in the club’s inquiry.
“It is upsetting yet unsurprising to see [the Latinx Democratic Club’s] lack of courage by reinstating the man who sexually assaulted me as their organization’s leader,” Hajee said in a statement. The 26-year-old said she felt the investigation was “biased” and would “ trivialize my own experience coming forward, which is why I declined to participate.”
In a Nov. 20 email to the club’s investigative committee, Hajee says she felt uncomfortable participating in the investigation, given club members’ testimony to the San Francisco Democratic Party on “false reporting” on sexual abuse within its chapters.
The local party chapter, the Democratic County Central Committee, in April, took up a review of clubs’ sexual-abuse guidelines, motivated by allegations against Jon Jacobo, a former Mission activist and housing advocate who is awaiting trial on rape charges.
In her email to the club on Nov. 20, Hajee asked the club to take her perspective into account. She received a reply thanking her for her response but nothing further, and has not heard from the club since. Club members declined to comment, pointing to the club’s statement.
Hajee is not alone in criticizing the club’s investigative process and its decision to reinstate Ortiz to its former role.
A second woman, anonymously quoted in the July 2024 Chronicle article, said the club “didn’t make any effort to reach out to me,” despite knowing her identity. “They didn’t hear from me,” she said, and she did not know there was an investigation underway.
Tony Brass, Ortiz’s lawyer, said in a statement that his client has cooperated with local authorities. The attorney pointed to text messages from May 2021, a couple of months after the alleged assaults, in which Hajee invited Ortiz to come to her house late at night.
“It was Mr. Ortiz who would inquire via text whether she was intoxicated, and rejected her invitations by diplomatically telling her that it would be inappropriate for him to come over if she was not sober,” read a statement by Brass.
“However, even though all of the evidence makes Mr. Ortiz’s innocence clear, the damage caused by Ms. Hajee’s accusation is difficult to quantify … Mr. Ortiz will continue to cooperate with the DA to clear his name, and will not stand by and have his reputation ruined by false allegations.”
It was not a complete investigation if the alleged victims involved did not participate. The SF Latinx Democratic Club can never be trusted as long as Kevin is involved in a leadership position. Will the Democratic County Central Committee take any action? They really made a big deal out of creating their new SA policies, so where is their investigation?
The same day Republican electors voted to confirm a sexual abuser as POTUS, the SF horseshoe far left circles the wagons to protect their own abuser presidemt. Appropriate.
They’re really gonna commit to riding themselves off a cliff with this scumbag, huh? We’ll all just have to make sure he goes no further.
You can’t script this shit. But if you did, put Ortiz playing a young Peter Clemenza as the resemblance is uncanny.
Dumb move by the Latinx dems to allow Kevin back to take his role. Unfortunately we live in a city where you are guilty until proven innocent no matter what when it comes to sa and even if you are found to be innocent your political aspirations will pretty much thrown in the trash anyways.. Kevin just needs to take a step back and fight to clear his name or stfu.
When people show you who and what they are through their actions, ignore what they say and believe them based on what they do.
The same people complaining about Republicans supporting a sexual abuser do the exact same thing when it’s one of their own who is the abuser. Shame on the LDC and their sham of an “investigation” that didn’t even include the two victims. Easy to find “no evidence” of wrongdoing in such circumstances. Barf!
This stinks to high heaven, and is a really bad look for the SFLDC. The problem with guys like Kevin Ortiz and Jon Jacobo, is that even though they take a break or resign while accusations fly, they’re always taken care of by the machismo Mission Latinx nonprofits/community partners: in this case, they’re protected/coddled by John Mendoza and Roberto Hernandez (Latino Task Force).
These abusers never learn, and they get put right back into power to keep harming the community. Deldep knew what was up, and she resigned to protect her own neck from community wrath (smart move). How quickly people forget that a few years ago, the entire SFLDC executive board resigned because of Kevin’s shenanigans.
His name is mud in the commmunity, and his return to leadership will be the final nail in the coffin for this political club.
The timing of the allegations were suspicious in that they coincided with the efforts being made to not only work on the Valencia Bike Lane but also the West Portal events. The DCCC was facing similar investigations into some of their officials so the whole matter took up a lot of air at a time when the stakes were high and accusations were flying. Fortunately that election season is behind us now and we can get on with the business of dealing with the results.