In a CNN story last week about allegations that he'd sexually harassed Todd Bosnich, his former policy director, Carl DeMaio claimed that the "troubled" young man had gone to the media as retribution for being fired.
But, save for a June 2 interview with KFMB's Mike Slater that never aired, Bosnich didn't go to the media. It was CNN who contacted Bosnich about the alleged sexual harassment, said his attorney, Bibi Fell. ---
"They contacted us," she told CityBeat this morning. Fell said this was a month ago. "They told us the story was going to run with or without Todd's input. Todd felt he had no choice but to respond."
CityBea t reached out to CNN reporter Chris Frates and the story's producer, Scott Zamost, but hasn't received a response.
And, Fell says, it wasn't until Bosnich was contacted by CNN that he learned that DeMaio-who's challenging incumbent Rep. Scott Peters-was saying he'd been fired for plagiarism. On May 12, the National Journal called out DeMaio for lifting information from a report they'd published on Congress members' pensions. At that point, DeMaio blamed his staff, but said he'd take full responsibility. But, in the CNN report that aired last week, DeMaio said Bosnich had admitted to plagiarizing and was fired. Fell said that when CNN asked him about it, it was news to Bosnich, who's said that he was fired on May 19, after he'd confronted DeMaio about the harassment and turned down an offer of a job with the local GOP and $50,000 to stay quiet.
We've asked the DeMaio campaign multiple times for documentation showing when and why Bosnich was fired, but have received no response. But Bosnich has shared with CityBeat a May 19 email showing he was still on DeMaio's staff that day and scheduled to participate in a morning campaign-strategy conference call. And, today, the Washington Examiner published a story about a May 15 email from DeMaio to campaign staff that included a list of tasks for Bosnich, including writing a draft of an "infrastructure plan," "Start working on Economic Plan/Pathway to Prosperity" and "track peters [sic]," the implication being that if Bosnich had been, or were to be, fired, why would he be given long-term projects to work on.
Fell said it was also someone other than Bosnich who reported the sexual-harassment allegations to police, shortly after he recorded the interview with Mike Slater. At a news conference last week, DeMaio confirmed that police had questioned him about the allegations, but said that Police Chief Shelly Zimmerman told him the claims were "unfounded." Zimmerman has declined to say whether this is true. As for DeMaio saying that Bosnich was involved in the office break-in, which happened either late on May 27 or early on May 28, Fell said it wasn't until late June or early July that police contacted Bosnich about it. Bosnich has said he had nothing to do with the break-in.
An earlier version of this story said that Bosnich quit after he was allegedly offered a bribe for his silence. That's inaccurate; he says he was fired when he rejected the offer. We apologize for the error.
Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com.