Councilman Huizar admits he had an affair with former employee now suing for harassment

Councilman Jose Huizar said today that he “deeply regrets” an affair he had with a former employee who has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him, according to the L.A. Times.

Huizar, whose 14th Council District stretches from Eagle Rock to Boyle Heights,  issued a statement about “an occasional and consensual relationship” with former Deputy Chief of Staff Francine Godoy after the 34-year-old woman filed a lawsuit claiming that her boss had retaliated against her after she turned down specific requests for “sexual favors,” said the Times.  Huizar, 45, threatened to withhold support for Godoy’s campaign to become elected to the board of the Los Angeles Community College District unless she had sex with him, according to the lawsuit. Huizar denounced those claims as “absolutely false and malicious.”

Huizar, a father of four children who lives in Boyle Heights, said he has apologized to his wife, Richelle Rios, and family and  is working on “repairing their marriage.”