The city of Murrieta has settled a lawsuit with Kathleen Smith, the woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by councilman and former mayor Harry Ramos, according to documentation obtained by Valley News.
The settlement in the amount of $99,000, significantly lower than the initial $1 million Smith and her attorneys originally requested in the lawsuit, releases both Ramos and the city of Murrieta from any further legal action regarding her allegations, including any future claims, complaints or charges.
Smith, who is now on disability and no longer works, will also be responsible for her own medical bills resulting from any necessary treatment stemming from the alleged incident. She is also responsible to pay her own attorney’s fees.
Smith signed the settlement agreement July 11.
In July of last year, Smith claimed that Ramos, who is married with four children, allegedly made repeated verbal advances, kissed her and grabbed and squeezed her buttocks and inner thighs without her consent while “acting in the course and scope of his position.” Ramos has vehemently denied the accusations since July when Smith held a news conference in front of Murrieta City Hall announcing her allegations.
Prior to Smith’s allegations, several people, including former councilman Doug McAllister, spoke out against Ramos in June, demanding an investigation into what they called Ramos’ violation of the city’s code of conduct.
In October, City Council stripped Ramos of his mayoral title after a city investigation determined there might have been cause to believe that Ramos did engage in misconduct. The unanimous decision made during a special called meeting Oct. 7, also prohibited Ramos from representing the city on any commissions, be given no committee assignments and prohibited him from representing any city business.
In November, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office announced that no criminal charges would be filed against Ramos for the alleged incident.
“Their decision was made based on their internal investigation and my understanding is they put one of their senior investigators on the case; she did a thorough investigation and reported back to a group of senior lawyers in the office in what’s called a staffing and then a decision was made not to file a case,” Ramos’ attorney Paul Grech told Valley News at the time.
Ramos, who has maintained his innocence throughout the entire investigation, has maintained that the allegations were all part of an
ongoing smear campaign against him.
“I felt compelled to confront this allegation head on and to clearly explain what the real motivations are for these continued attacks against me,” Ramos said during a July 24, 2015 press conference, adding that in spite of numerous controversies over the past two years, he wanted to keep the community “strong, growing and moving in the right direction.”
“I have never in all of my life, inappropriately touched a woman or forced myself onto a woman,” Ramos said.
Ramos said the accusations made against him were still “devastating,” even though he had been forewarned of the possibility of what he called “character assassination” by those who oppose him.
Calling the allegations a “blatant and disgusting attack” on his character and his family, Ramos said he could prove he was innocent against all charges and was in possession of “damning evidence” that would prove so.
“It has caused me and my family distress and anguish,” he said.
Ramos claims that he was told that Smith was told to “do this, simply with intentions of making her into a political pawn in this attempt to destroy me personally, simply because I refuse to vote or go along with phony politics and support certain chosen developers and friends within the city.”
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