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A former employee at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, who was fired after replying to an office-wide email with a salacious comment, is now suing the department, his former boss, and some of his former co-workers.
The scandal erupted on January 26, when DA Brooke Jenkins sent an email to her entire department, and Jovan Thomas, a 56-year-old victim witness advocate, replied all with the shocking question: “What color panties you have on?” Thomas was fired shortly thereafter.
On July 19, he filed a civil complaint against San Francisco, the DA’s office, Jenkins and other employees, claiming he was defamed since the offensive question was nothing more than a terrible accident.
The complaint, obtained by Courthouse News, alleges that when Jenkins sent the email, Thomas had been texting with an old friend who had just lost his father. Thomas insists he had typed out the panties message “hoping to cheer up his friend,” and it was a “silly joke” since his friend was a “straight male who did not wear panties.”
But “just as” Thomas was about to fire off his text, an email from Jenkins came through and he “accidentally emailed” the panties message to Jenkins and the office in a “reply all,” according to the filing.
Thomas immediately apologized to Jenkins, the complaint states. Jenkins then informed the staff who had received the shocking email to keep it confidential.
But later that day, Thomas lost his job.
Thomas accused Jenkins and her staff of making “false, fraudulent, malicious and humiliating statements about plaintiff to the press and others,” the complaint says.
He sued for 12 causes of action, including invasion of privacy, defamation, and negligence. Thomas claims that he has suffered loss of income, emotional distress, and “irreparable injury to his business reputation.”
A DA spokesperson called the email “misogynistic,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The DA’s office declined to comment.
