A former Adelanto city manager who was terminated amid allegations of sexual harassment is now seeking to clear to his name, alleging that the real reason for his firing was his attempt to expose wrongdoing by city officials.
Gabriel Elliot filed a legal claim against the city Friday. It alleges wide-ranging corruption by Mayor Rich Kerr and current interim city manager Jessie Flores -- much of it involving the city’s marijuana industry.
According to Elliot, Mayor Kerr prevented code enforcement officers from enforcing regulations on a number of marijuana businesses in the city. Then, according to Elliot, Kerr accepted a $200,000 bribe for the sale of the city’s public works building/emergency operations center.
Elliott alleges he was fired because he thwarted the sale of the city’s public works building, which doubled as the city’s emergency operations center, to a marijuana cultivator who allegedly was an “agent” for U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach. Elliott claims the property was undervalued, and that Kerr and Flores expected to receive kickbacks from the buyer of the property once it was sold.
Kerr, according to the claim, told Elliott the buyer was C.B. Nanda, and that Rohrabacher had ensured the mayor that the city, in exchange for the sale of the property, would be protected from “any federal raids of the marijuana cultivation and consumption industry within Adelanto.”
When Kerr went to the FBI, he says a vicious retaliation campaign began. That campaign, spearheaded by the mayor, included encouraging ‘trumped up’ charges of sexual harassment against him.
The relationship between Elliot and Kerr got so tense that the mayor even allegedly threatened Elliot with a sword.
“On one occasion, Kerr had his sworn drawn, entered Elliott’s office, and walked briskly towards Elliott. Another time Kerr simulated a jousting motion with his sword and yelled, “I will stick somebody…” according to the claim.
Elliot also claims that Kerr repeatedly ordered him to terminate employees who were not aligned with him politically. When Elliot refused, Kerr threatened to have him fired.
The city has denied Elliot’s allegations. Rohrabacher has also called the claims about the sale of the city’s public works building “absolutely absurd.”
Adelanto is no stranger to allegations of cannabis-related corruption, however. The FBI has been investigating the city and its marijuana industry for the past year and carried out a series of raids on Kerr’s home, City Hall, and a local dispensary in May. A former councilman was also arrested in November for taking a $10,000 bribe from an undercover FBI agent who he believed was interested in setting up a marijuana business in the city.
As to the sexual harassment allegations against Elliot, those don’t seem to be entirely without merit either. The charges, which originated from two separate women, yielded more than 20 allegations. According to Elliott’s attorney, Tristan Pelayes, eight of those were sustained. Pelayes says that’s only because the investigator chose to believe the accusers’ version of events over Elliot’s. He still vehemently denies the accusations against him.
Read more at the San Bernardino Sun.