Posted on 02/29/2012 6:20:47 PM PST by SmithL
A top administrator in the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office is being sued by a former colleague for punching him in the face during an office brawl two years ago.
The fight came amid a highly contentious 2010-election in which the two high-ranking prosecutors backed opposing candidates in the district attorney's race.
Paul Sequeira, who was assistant district attorney under former DA Robert Kochly and now holds the same job in Mendocino County, filed the suit Wednesday against senior deputy district attorney Harold Jewett for attacking him during a heated argument inside the DA Office's Martinez headquarters in March 2010.
Sequeria, who was ranked No. 3 in the office at that time, received stitches under his left eye after the fight, and later had surgery in his right eye for partial vision loss. Jewett says he hit Sequeira in self-defense before both men went to the ground in a struggle, according to internal documents obtained by this newspaper.
Jewett, once named California's prosecutor of the year, was placed on 30 days unpaid administrative leave after the incident and lost his position as supervisor of the homicide unit. Sequeira missed weeks of work for medical treatment.
The two men, who were considered among the most skilled and headstrong prosecutors in the office, had other blowouts in their decades as colleagues, but that was their only physical altercation, according to investigative reports.
Jewett declined to comment on the lawsuit, but he has contended in internal communications that he acted in self-defense. Sequeira's complaint says Jewett assaulted him without warning, and that he has no self-defense claim.
The lawsuit, which names Jewett and John Does 1-20, demands a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages for Sequeria's medical bills, attorney's fees and pain and suffering. It's unclear whether Contra Costa County will be added...
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
Why is he allowed to sue 2 years later? Most places you have 1 year to file or its a no go.
Sequeria, who was ranked No. 3 in the office at that time......slipped a few spots after getting punched out.
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