Attorney Gloria Allred revealed the latest women to accuse San Diego Democratic Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment to be city hall worker and great-grandmother Peggy Shannon at a Thursday press conference.
“Peggy loved her job until Mayor Filner made her job unbearable,” Allred said.
According to Allred and Shannon, Filner kissed her on the lips unexpectedly, asked her out and said inappropriate things to her.
After Filner kissed her, she cried at home, Allred and Shannon recounted.
Several months ago, Allred said, Filner went up to Shannon and “took her hand without her permission and asked her, ‘Do you think I could go eight hours straight?’ He was obviously not talking about work.”
On July 18, Shannon filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Investigations Office (EEIO) alleging that Filner had sexually harassed her, Allred added. According to Allred, the EEIO said that it would open an investigation into the matter.
“The mayor targeted and preyed upon Peggy Shannon, a senior citizen who was employed at City Hall to help seniors. Peggy was there to do her job but Mayor Filner seemed to think that she was there solely for his sexual pleasure,” Allred said.
“Enough is enough,” Allred said, adding that Shannon wants Filner to resign.
“Every day I went to work I had butterflies in my stomach, because I did not know what was going to happen the next time the mayor came by my desk,” a visibly shaken Shannon said. “It became very stressful for me.”
She further recounted how after the news of Filner’s sexual harassment broke, the mayor motioned for her to be quiet, “I was blown away,” Shannon said.
“Mayor Filner should resign immediately,” she said.
Shannon will be returning to work, Allred said.
Allred added that she knows there are more women, outside of the ones who have stepped forward, who Filner harassed.
“It is time for him to go,” Allred said.
Allred also represents Filner’s former director of communications, Irene McCormack Jackson, who last month filed a lawsuit against the mayor and city.
Shannon joins the more than 14 other women who have accused the mayor of sexual harassment. To date, Filner has refused to step down.