A San Diego County supervisor and Marine combat veteran has drawn criticism from some veterans for announcing he had post-traumatic stress just days before accusations emerged that he sexually assaulted and harassed a government employee.
Nathan Fletcher’s progressive positions and telegenic presence made him a solid favorite to succeed another prominent California politician, Toni Atkins, in the state Senate. But he announced March 26 that he was dropping his bid after less than two months to seek treatment for alcohol abuse and “devastating post traumatic stress associated with combat piled on top of intense childhood trauma.”
Days later, Fletcher resigned as chair of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System after a government staffer alleged sexual harassment and assault in a lawsuit that included screenshots of lurid messages from Fletcher.
Hours after that, Fletcher said he would resign from the county board of supervisors, calling the pressure on his family over the last week “immense and unbearable.”
“A combination of my personal mistakes plus false accusations has created a burden that my family shouldn’t have to bear,” he said.
He has said he plans to leave office May 15, though other city politicians have pushed him to resign immediately.
Some veterans are outraged at what they see as wielding claims of post-traumatic stress for political purposes, as local ABC affiliate KGTV first reported.
Retired Marine Maj. Phil Kendro, who has led multiple veterans’ organizations in San Diego, told Marine Corps Times on Thursday that he is upset that Fletcher is playing “the veteran card” in a city with a high veteran population, which he cited as 13%.
“That is a stereotype that we have to face every day, that people think by hiring a veteran or working with veterans — that they’re gonna have PTS,” he said. “And so now all of a sudden we get him claiming this, and that hurts all veterans.”
For Fletcher to blame personal misconduct on post-traumatic stress, an issue that many local veterans are living with, is “such a horrible stunt,” Kendro added.
“I was shocked, once the allegations came out, that he used PTSD as a cover for his sexual harassment charges,” another county supervisor, Navy veteran Jim Desmond, told Marine Corps Times on Thursday. “And I’ve talked to many other veterans, in the Marine Corps as well, saying that they were not happy with the fact that he used PTSD as an excuse for his sexual transgressions.”
“It was very disappointing to hear that link and to have people think that PTSD is a root cause for sexual harassment — which it’s not,” added Desmond, who noted that he is not an expert on the condition.
The board of supervisors held an emergency meeting April 11 to pass a resolution of no confidence and call for his immediate resignation.
A spokesman for Fletcher said the supervisor could not respond to a Marine Corps Times request for comment because he is in treatment.
Fletcher served in the Marine Corps from 1997 to 2007, according to Corps spokeswoman Yvonne Carlock. A counterintelligence Marine, he deployed to Iraq in 2004 and Djibouti in 2006.
Other new outlets reported in previous years that Fletcher saw combat while deployed to Iraq’s Sunni Triangle.
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He departed the Corps as a staff sergeant, according to Carlock. His awards include the Combat Action Ribbon, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Selected Marine Corps Reserve Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon two times, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
Fletcher, 46, was the face of the San Diego region’s muscular response to COVID-19 at daily news conferences. He became half of San Diego’s most powerful political couple after his 2017 marriage to Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a well-known liberal Democratic state assemblywoman who became a top California labor leader last year.
Back in November 2022, Fletcher, who defected from the Republican Party in 2012, was elected to a second term on the county board of supervisors with 65% of the vote.
Allegations of misconduct
In a lawsuit filed March 28 in San Diego Superior Court, a government staffer says she began exchanging messages with Fletcher in 2021 when he started visiting her social media accounts. He once wrote, “Home alone — no wife and kids.” He urged her to delete his texts and be discreet.
The staffer says Fletcher kissed her in the stairway of a hotel where he was staying in May 2022. Weeks later, he allegedly texted her during a meeting that he had for five minutes and asked her to go to an adjoining conference room, where he kissed and grabbed her.
The worker was fired Feb. 6 after she “attempted to engage in meaningful, pre-litigation discussions with Fletcher to resolve her claims quietly and amicably,” her lawsuit says.
Just before Fletcher ended his Senate run, Fletcher’s attorney threatened to sue the worker for extortion, she said.
Fletcher acknowledged “consensual interactions” with someone outside his marriage.
“I haven’t done the things that are alleged but I did violate the basic trust of my marriage and set a terrible example for our children,” he said in a statement.
San Diego County Democratic Party Chair Becca Taylor said on March 30, echoing other political leaders, that Fletcher’s decision to resign was appropriate.
Gonzalez Fletcher, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, said that she loves her husband and believes “his name will be cleared” but that she urged him to resign.
Irene Loewenson is a staff reporter for Marine Corps Times. She joined Military Times as an editorial fellow in August 2022. She is a graduate of Williams College, where she was the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.
