A former district director for Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco has filed a lawsuit accusing the lawmaker, her chief of staff and the state Assembly of retaliation and creating a hostile work environment, following a stretch of medical leave and a camera investigation he says targeted him unfairly. Ari Ruiz Reyes alleges in the suit that Pacheco and chief of staff Nikki Johnson pushed him out after he raised concerns through the Legislature’s internal workplace watchdog, only to have that watchdog close his case without ever interviewing a witness.
Ruiz Reyes, who began working for Pacheco in 2024, filed the lawsuit last month in Los Angeles Superior Court against Pacheco, Johnson, the state Assembly and its Rules Committee, according to CalMatters, which was also reported by the Mountain View Voice. The Rules Committee, which Pacheco chairs, serves as the Assembly’s human resources department. Before joining Pacheco’s office, Ruiz Reyes had worked as an aide to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters and as a district staffer for former Assemblymembers Autumn Burke and Blanca Rubio.
A Car Crash, Medical Leave and a Missing Camera
According to the lawsuit, Ruiz Reyes was injured in a work-related car crash in August 2025 and developed chronic back pain afterward. He went on leave between September and December for stress-related medical conditions, during which he says he also experienced stress-induced hair loss. When he returned from sick leave in September, the suit alleges that Pacheco and Rules Committee chief administrative officer Lia Lopez met with him to investigate him over a missing office camera.
That same month, the lawsuit claims Pacheco and Lopez excluded Ruiz Reyes from an all-staff meeting and directed his subordinates to report instead to Johnson’s assistant. Ruiz Reyes also accused Johnson of asking a staff member to drive her to a hair salon during work hours, and of allowing Capitol staff to work remotely while requiring district office staff to report in person.
Watchdog Complaint Closed Without Interviews
Ruiz Reyes reported Pacheco and Johnson to the Legislature’s Workplace Conduct Unit, filing a complaint on November 7, 2025, and submitting a second one about a month later. The unit closed the case in February without investigating, stating in a letter obtained by CalMatters that there was not enough information “to support a connection to a protected class.” In the lawsuit, Ruiz Reyes said the case was closed without any investigation, without interviewing a single witness and without requesting a single document.
Ruiz Reyes returned to work on December 5, 2025, and said the retaliation escalated from there. He alleges Johnson stripped him of his authority to approve expenditures, excluded him from the hiring of his own subordinate and criticized his tone. He also says Pacheco fired him despite knowing about his concerns regarding Johnson.
Attorney Points to Gaps in Legal Protections
Sam Yebri, the attorney representing Ruiz Reyes, said his client is a career public servant with nearly a decade of legislative experience and declined to clarify what ultimately happened with the camera investigation. Yebri argued that California’s worker and legislative whistleblower protections should fully apply to legislative employees. California’s AB 403, the Legislative Employee Whistleblower Protection Act, states in its text that the Legislature considered it necessary to establish a specific process for legislative employees to report legal and ethical violations without fear of retribution, in addition to other existing retaliation protections, according to California Legislative Information.
Pacheco declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing the need to protect employee privacy, but her spokesperson Alina Evans said the assemblymember would respond through the appropriate legal channels. Johnson also declined to comment. Lopez said the Assembly disputes the allegations and intends to defend against them.
Not the Only Staffer Suing the Assembly This Fall
Ruiz Reyes’s case is not the only recent lawsuit accusing an Assembly office of retaliation. Former district director Pa’tanisha Davis Pierson sued Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías and the California Assembly in a complaint filed October 21 in Contra Costa Superior Court, alleging racial discrimination and whistleblower retaliation after she reported suspected campaign work being conducted from the district office during state time, per CalMatters. Unlike Ruiz Reyes’s case, the Workplace Conduct Unit opened an investigation into Davis Pierson’s allegations on November 3; Ávila Farías has said she vigorously denies the allegations and will defend against them through the legal process.
The Workplace Conduct Unit, formed jointly by the Senate and Assembly in 2019, is meant to review complaints beyond sexual harassment, including discrimination and retaliation tied to a protected class, and can investigate or refer cases to Assembly or Senate human resources, per the unit’s own FAQ page. A legislative report found the unit received 646 complaints between 2019 and 2024 and resolved 96% of them, though the report did not define what counted as resolved or disclose how many were substantiated, according to KCRA. A separate accounting found the unit received 181 misconduct allegations and resolved 85 of them, though it remained unclear how many led to substantiated findings or discipline, as reported by CapRadio.
