A California Democrat running for Orange County assessor has been accused of making staffers grab her fake breasts, as well as using campaign funds for personal expenses, a new report claims.
Janet Keo Conklin currently serves as a councilmember for the City of La Palma, which is just south of Los Angeles. She recently lost endorsements from her Democratic colleagues due to the sordid allegations against her.
Four of Conklin's former staffers told LAist that they left her campaign due to sexually inappropriate behavior. The assessor candidate emphatically denied the claims.
Two of the staffers, who requested anonymity to protect their careers, told the outlet that during a campaign meeting, Conklin grabbed their hands and placed them on her breasts.
'She was telling us about how her breasts were not real and that... "she has no feeling in her nipples,"' one staffer told LAist.
The staffer added that 'we didn't want to touch her at all in that aspect,' but that she essentially forced them to by moving their hands without their consent.
He added that Conklin told the other staffer, who is a woman, to 'give it a squeeze.'
'We were just in shock,' he told LAist. Three other staffers interviewed by the outlet corroborated the details of the accusation based on what they had heard around the time of the alleged incident.
Janet Keo Conklin, a California Democrat running for Orange County assessor, has been accused of sexual misconduct and misuse of campaign funds by former staffers
Two former staffers accused Conklin of grabbing their hands and placing them on her breasts while telling the staffers she had no feeling in her nipples
When LAist asked Conklin - who is a mother of two - about the accusation, she said: 'That's really ridiculous.'
Another staffer interviewed by the outlet said that on another occasion, Conklin asked her to organize files on two phones and joked that she should avoid 'd**k pictures' while going through the devices.
The candidate said that she was alluding to a lewd photograph she had received from a client when she used to work as a salesperson.
'I wouldn't say anything inappropriate to a staffer because it's not a thing,' Conklin told LAist. She added that the staffers were 'pulling things out of context' to 'villainize' her.
Beyond the allegations of sexual misconduct, Conklin's former campaign treasurer has also accused the candidate of misusing campaign funds.
Cine Ivery, the former treasurer, told LAist that Conklin fired her after she requested receipts for around $1,100 in charges on a maxed-out $2,500 campaign credit card.
Ivery said that her former boss 'was always trying to find a way' to use campaign funds for personal expenses such as rent payments and bills.
The former treasurer shared the credit card statement with LAist, which determined that most of the payments without receipts were billed to restaurants.
Conklin's former campaign treasurer said she was fired after requesting receipts for about $1,100 of charges on a campaign credit card
Other staffers who requested anonymity told the outlet that Conklin personally incurred those expenses.
Ivery said that she ended up having to pay off the credit card charges with her own money because the credit card had been issued through her company.
Conklin's new campaign consultant, Michael Trujillo, told LAist that the allegations of misused campaign funds are '100 percent not true.'
He added that if Conklin's accusers are confident there was wrongdoing, they should file a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission, which oversees and enforces campaign finance laws.
'They haven't, and they won't because it's not true,' Trujillo told LAist.
Despite Conklin and her team's vehement denial of the allegations, she lost the endorsements of Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento and US Representative Derek Tran.
Due to the allegations against Conklin, she lost an endorsement from Democratic US Representative Derek Tran
Florice Hoffman, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Orange County, told Conklin that she should hire a criminal lawyer after the accusations surfaced
Additionally, the chair of the Orange County Democratic Party, Florice Hoffman, told LAist that she recalled telling Conklin to hire a criminal lawyer after the accusations surfaced.
But Conklin does not seem too troubled. She told the outlet: 'I'm not concerned. I have not done anything wrong.'
When it came to her lost endorsements, she said: 'Endorsements come and go. If it doesn't come with money, so what?'
The Daily Mail has reached out to Conklin's campaign for comment.
































