Civil rights investigations reveal a culture of silence at the Sheriff’s Office.

The late-night, flirtatious messages began in spring of 2018. But this was not a dating app, where messages like this might be expected. This was Facebook Messenger, and the messages were being sent by the number-two officer in the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office to a woman employee in the department.

The messages eventually came to a stop when she confronted their author: Undersheriff John Mineau. But then the messages began again, this time to another woman employed by the Sheriff’s Department.

In both cases, then-Capt. John Thornburg was advised of the situation, with the hopes that he, as a supervisor, would take action on behalf of the women. Instead, he did nothing.

This account is based on the findings of an investigation conducted by the Monterey County Civil Rights Office, released on June 24. The investigation lays out allegation after allegation, each marked with the investigator’s finding: “Substantiated.”

“Did John Mineau send messages to ___ that were of a sexual nature?” Substantiated.

“Did the conduct meet the definition of sexual harassment under the county’s sexual harassment policy?” Substantiated.

“Did John Thornburg fail to take appropriate action in response to reports of possible misconduct by Mineau, in violation of the county’s nondiscrimination policy?” Substantiated.

The takeaway from the Civil Rights Office’s findings: Sexual harassment did occur, and when reported to a supervisor, he did nothing to intervene.

This is the culture of enabling sexual harassment and creating a toxic workplace for women that we hoped came to and end in the era of the Me Too movement; yet, in the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, it is alive and well.

The investigation’s findings were provided to the complainants, Thornburg and Mineau, and to the department head – Sheriff Steve Bernal. The Civil Rights Office issues recommendations to a department head to prevent future violations, and a department head is asked to respond within 30 days.

Documents in civil rights investigations are not public records. The Weekly has viewed a copy of the investigator’s findings, but not the recommendations to Bernal, nor his response. (Bernal and Thornburg did not return requests for an interview. Mineau declined to comment, noting the documents came with a “gag order.”)

Whatever was contained in those recommendations, it did not stop Thornburg from being promoted. About six weeks after the civil rights investigation was concluded, a department-wide memo went out announcing Mineau’s forthcoming retirement date, Sept. 9. But he was already functionally stepping down from his duties. The acting undersheriff would be Thornburg.

The Weekly is not using the names of the women involved. But one says this appointment, of the person who enabled the misconduct, was a sign that the leadership truly doesn’t care. “He was willing to let us suffer to not rock the boat,” she says of Thornburg.

This is exactly how the Good Ol’ Boys Club operates – there are rewards for not rocking the boat.

“Women shouldn’t be treated as a dating pool,” the woman adds. “They shouldn’t be put in a position by men where they are uncomfortable saying no. There are a lot of reasons why it’s uncomfortable to say stop.”

Monterey County Civil Rights Officer Juan Rodriguez is unable to even confirm the existence of an investigation, and declines to speak about specifics. But he says when his office receives complaints – either from members of the public about interactions with county staff, or from county staff – there are a host of actions to take before it elevates to a full-blown investigation. Sometimes it’s a simple phone call to a supervisor, for instance helping a county employee with disabilities get accommodations needed to conduct their job.

Most of the time, complaints are solved upstream. “The ones that actually go to investigation are rare,” Rodriguez says. “We have a whole lot of other stuff we do to prevent this. We are always trying to conciliate.”

That includes programs like sexual harassment training to prevent misconduct from occurring at all. But at the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, it looks like the top leadership decided to look the other way.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com.