New Lawsuit Implicates Filner's Bodyguards

An attorney says Filner's guards turned a blind eye when the former mayor acted inappropriately

The latest civil lawsuit to hit San Diego over the Bob Filner scandal also points fingers at his security detail.

Marilyn McGaughy is suing Filner and the city after she claims she was sexually battered and violated during an event in May of 2013 at Johnson Elementary School in Emerald Hills.

“He was playing around with breast by playing with her tag. She had a name tag on her shirt, and he was kind of messing with it too long” said her attorney Dan Gilleon. “He did kiss her on the forehead and asked her out and that whole thing, the whole series. We’ve seen that before.”

The lawsuit claims, “Filner’s body guards, employed by the city, were present and witnessed Filner’s wrongful conduct, however failed to stop Filner or protect McGaughy” and “Filner’s body guards would look the other way when he would engage in inappropriate or wrongful conduct, a violation of the city’s zero tolerance policy."

No one from the security detail team is named in the lawsuit and Gilleon says they won’t be in the future, but he does believe this makes the city more culpable.

“They just simply looked away and said ‘our duty of loyalty is solely with Mr. Filner.' There’s no other way to explain what they were doing," Gilleon said.

The San Diego City Attorney’s office tells NBC 7 this is the third pending civil case of its kind and they will defend the city.

Last August, when first presented with details of this case, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said the city wouldn’t just start handing out money to accusers.

“I don’t want to be insensitive to people that had inappropriate conduct directed to them, but not every time there’s inappropriate conduct do you get to recover $250,000,” Goldsmith said in previous interview with NBC 7.

Goldsmith said last August that the city will handle each claim concerning Filner on its own merits, first determining whether or not the city is liable by looking to see if the accuser is a city employee, volunteer or contractor.

“We’re responsible for sexual harassment on employees, should it be proven,” he said.

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