Phil Bacerra (cop/gentrifier Santa Ana council candidate) sustains #metoo allegation.

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Well, no other local political blog is gonna touch this, so here we go.

You may know that Santa Ana has a half-assed parody of district elections which they call “ward elections” – a council candidate has to live in and “represent” a certain “ward,” but they need to get the whole city to vote for them.  (The good citizens of that town have been trying hard to get REAL district elections but keep getting stomped on by the status quo-loving incumbents – in THIS case Latino Democrats.)

So anyway the Ward 4 Councilman David Benavides, one of the many SA councilmen who seems to have been there forever, is FINALLY termed out, and two of his former planning commissioner appointees are vying to take his place – Roman Reyna and Phil Bacerra.  I’ve liked Roman – even if it sometimes takes him a little while to figure things out, he generally comes down on the side of the people against big special interests and police brutality.  Phil however has become the candidate of Santa Ana’s insatiable, power-mad and deep-pocketed Police Union, as well as the developers whom my friends down there generally refer to as “gentrifiers.”

Be all that as it may, Phil has had a very serious-sounding #metoo allegation launched against him by his former 4-year girlfriend Griselda Govea, and this will certainly be the only OC blog to print it.  Why do I say that?  Because Phil and Dan Chmielewski of the ironically-dubbed “Liberal OC” have been very close friends forever, and Dan doesn’t have many friends. 

Yes, it’s ironic because Dan likes to paint himself as a valiant defender of abused women, who repeats and repeats such allegations – credible or not – against political figures he doesn’t like … but when Phil’s little problem came up obliquely on his blog he dismissed it as “just mean texts between the two when they broke up.”  (And other local bloggers either don’t care or want to avoid a fight with Dan.)  So it’s down to the Orange Juice to let Santa Ana voters know what Griselda has to say about Phil, and make up their own minds.

So without further ado, here’s Griselda:

“I am writing to divulge a deep, dark hurtful secret about an abusive relationship involving a man in the public light in Santa Ana, Phil Bacerra. I am doing so, at this point, because I am regularly confronted with his campaign signs in my neighborhood. Phil is running for an open City Council seat in my City, Santa Ana. While my experiences with Phil have been largely been kept secret I feel now compelled to speak on this topic since he has decided that he should be a public servant.

“Phil and I had a four year relationship. During the course of this relationship Phil was regularly abusive toward me. This abuse took many forms including verbal, emotional and physical abuse. I want to shed this hard, dark, and heartbreaking part of my past life gone and I know, in telling my story, that this will help to lift this heavy burden from my shoulders and educate the voters of Santa Ana about who Phil is and why, in my opinion, he should not be on the Santa Ana City Council.

“During our relationship, Phil had an apartment in Santa Ana. Verbally and emotionally, he regularly yelled at me and mocked me. He mocked my language skills since English was my second language. He spit in my face as a way to demean me as a human.

“Physically, Phil threw me up against the walls of his apartment slamming me on the ground. When I tried to escape his violent tirade and ran toward the door he ripped my clothes off me. There were outside witnesses to this abuse. Caring neighbors and friends, who heard the abuse or witnessed me in a disheveled state, regularly checked up on me concerned, as they were, with my welfare. I have emails and texts from these witnesses. You need not take my word alone concerning these matters. There are individuals who are willing to confirm the above facts.

“During our four year relationship, Phil kept me mired in this abuse. Only when I left the relationship, and experienced real and caring love with another man, did I finally understand the scope of his abuse.

“I am appalled that Phil would have the nerve to run for City Council. Women constitute the majority of voters in Santa Ana. He is NOT a trustworthy advocate of women’s issues in our City. He is abusive and cynical.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re left or right. What matters is to prevent abusers into office. Abusers of power, abusers of women, of men, and of our city. It’s time for us the voters to be accountable of who we put into office. To be diligent on our homework over the nominees and candidates.

“You want real change? Be accountable with your vote. Phil Bacerra has no problem with abusing power and women.

“Prevent another abuser from getting his hands on our city. Haven’t we gone through enough? Perhaps Phil is right, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”. We’re done electing abusers around these neck of the woods. End the it before it before it begins.”