www.montereycountynow.com FEBRUARY 20-26, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 21 served on the board of the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center.) “It’s better now than it ever has been. When we first started, there was so much victim-blaming, and it was very hard to get things prosecuted,” White Dixon says. “As bad as it is, it has been worse.” Panetta, who retired in 2013, went on to serve in a variety of leadership roles, including as Secretary of Defense from 2011-13. He remembers bringing the concerns of local volunteers to members of the Armed Services Committee. “I continued to focus on that issue not only then but the time I spent in White House and then as Secretary of Defense,” Panetta says. “I felt strongly that women ought to be given the opportunity to participate in service in every area, including combat. For that to work, it was extremely important to make sure we were doing everything necessary to make sure that sexual abuse was not a problem. “There is no question is has gotten better, but it can’t be taken for granted,” he adds. “The most important thing is that the leadership at the Pentagon have to continue to stress it in their roles.” SOME OF WHAT WE KNOW about the views of current leaders comes from their public remarks and writings. In Hegseth’s case, at least when it comes to what happened between him and Jane Doe one night in Monterey in 2017, we know about it because of the California Public Records Act. Since mid-November, the City of Monterey and the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office were inundated with dozens of requests for records. There were phone calls, emails and handwritten inquiries from a Washington Post reporter. Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, also tried to get more information from the DA. “As the legal representative of Mr. Hegseth, who was the subject of this investigation, we seek this information to understand the basis for the decision not to prosecute,” he wrote. “This request is made in the interest of transparency and to ensure that our client is fully informed about the circumstances surrounding the investigation. Additionally, Mr. Hegseth needs this information to defend himself from public backlash from the release of the police report, as well as for potential litigation against the complainant.” Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon wrote back as he did to dozens of other requests: Investigative records are exempt from the California Public Records Act and would not be disclosed. Even when Gavin Brendan, General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, requested information from the DA on Dec. 19 on behalf of the senators, the denial was the same. The DA’s Office possesses a declination-to-file memo and a brief case summary, but would not be releasing those documents. Even in the City of Monterey, where Davi determined she was legally obligated to release the police report, there were continued requests for additional records. An attorney for CBS News persisted in seeking the Hyatt footage that was collected by police as evidence, but the city declined. The city’s objective, Assistant City Attorney Karin Salameh wrote, was to balance disclosure with privacy. “Disclosure of this information is likely to lead to the identification of Jane Doe. While recognizing the strong public interest in this case, the interest in maintaining the confidentiality of the identity of victims who report sexual assaults is paramount,” she wrote. “Therefore, the surveillance remains confidential.” The police report, redacted for privacy of Jane Doe, her husband and their minor children, changed the narrative available to the public, including to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Whether or not those disclosures changed anything in reality is a different story. “The press and public have a right to the full story and they got it,” says Loy, of the First Amendment Coalition. “Transparency doesn’t always lead to an outcome. It gets the information out for public officials to make their decisions fully informed. What they do with that is a political matter.” If you are a victim of sexual assault, there is help available. The Monterey County Rape Crisis Center manages a 24/7 hotline at (831) 375-4357. 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