Today, the San Diego District Attorney’s Office announced that it had concluded its review of two investigations involving candidate Carl DeMaio’s congressional campaign. The two investigations surrounded burglary and vandalism to DeMaio’s campaign headquarters in May, as well as subsequent allegations of sexual harassment by former DeMaio staffer Todd Bosnich.
The DA’s Office stated in an email that after thorough investigations of both cases conducted by the San Diego Police Department, no criminal charges will be filed at this time due to insufficient evidence.
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said, “The San Diego Police Department’s investigations of these matters have been very thorough, objective and professional. SDPD committed significant resources to the investigations and no stone was left unturned. The District Attorney’s Office thoroughly reviewed the investigations. We use the same process and standards for evaluating cases no matter who the parties are. Our focus is, and always will be, the pursuit of justice.”
Dumanis’ statement raises new questions about when the sexual harassment investigation was concluded. At his press conference Oct. 8, DeMaio said San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman told him in August that the sexual harassment allegations had been fully investigated and determined to lack merit.
“All of our campaign members, including myself, freely provided information and the police chief called me and she said, ‘Thank you for your full cooperation and we consider this matter closed,’” DeMaio said. The question remains did Chief Zimmerman call the candidate to say the investigation was closed when it was still open with the District Attorney? How could Zimmerman assure DeMaio that the accusations were determined to lack merit if the case was being reviewed by the DA? If DA Dumanis had already determined that the sexual accusations were not sufficient for an indictment why did it take so long to notify the public?
DeMaio asserted that his sexual harassment accuser was responsible for his campaign office break-in. That allegation has also been dismissed for insufficient evidence by Dumanis.
Meanwhile, NBC San Diego reported today that the FBI is now investigating the DeMaio sexual harassment allegations. According to the report, anonymous emails sent to Todd Bosnich who accused Republican congressional candidate Carl DeMaio of sexual harassment, are the basis of FBI agent interviews with potential witnesses.
