Lawsuit Accuses Chavez Nonprofits of Concealing Abuse

An 86-year-old woman has filed a lawsuit in Kern County Superior Court accusing two nonprofits affiliated with the late labor leader César Chávez of negligence, sexual harassment and civil rights violations, alleging they failed to stop and helped conceal his abuse of her decades ago. The complaint, filed on behalf of a woman identified as Jane Doe, names the César Chávez Foundation and the United Farm Workers Foundation as defendants. According to the suit, the woman moved to California's Central Valley after college to support the farmworker organizing movement and lived with her family at La Paz, the union compound in Keene near Bakersfield where Chávez and his top lieutenants resided. The lawsuit alleges that in 1973, during a celebration at the compound held around her 33rd birthday, Chávez plied her with alcohol and pursued her aggressively, prompting her to hide in a bathroom. After she rebuffed his advances, the complaint states, he followed her to her home and raped her in her marital bed while a bodyguard stood watch outside. The suit further alleges that three to four years later, Chávez summoned her to his house and forcibly subjected her to a second sexual assault.