Quick Take
Stephen Siefke’s mother, partner and friends took the stand on Tuesday to confirm details laid out in his civil lawsuit alleging that Watsonville City Councilmember Jimmy Dutra molested him decades ago when he was 12 years old and to testify about how they believe it has affected his life. The trial resumes Wednesday morning, and the plaintiff's case is expected to wrap up by the end of the day.
Friends and family of Stephen Siefke testified in person and by video on Tuesday about Siefke’s behavior as a teenager and young adult after he claims to have been molested by Watsonville City Councilmember Jimmy Dutra in 2005, when Siefke was 12 and Dutra was 30. The testimony, on the second day of a civil trial in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, was in part aimed at rebutting Dutra’s past suggestion that the allegations were surfaced to harm his 2022 race for county supervisor.
Dutra was initially accused of molesting former family friend Siefke during his failed campaign for District 4 county supervisor in 2022. He is currently running for reelection to the Watsonville City Council. Siefke alleged that Dutra molested him in 2005 during a trip to Dutra’s family’s home in Los Angeles. Dutra has adamantly denied the allegations.
Kelli Siefke, Stephen’s mother, told jurors on Tuesday that even though she was not concerned about her son going on the trip to Los Angeles to see family friends, she did not know Dutra well. After her son returned, he seemed to be behaving normally at first, she said, but she started noticing a stark change the next time that Dutra was at the home of Dutra’s father and his partner, Susie McBride, whom she said was like Siefke’s second mother.
“Stephen refused to go over to the house, and that was extremely unusual,” said Kelli Siefke. “If Stephen had even an inkling that they were coming to visit, he was ready to go. This time he just said, ‘I don’t want to,’ and that was the extent of the conversation.”
Kelli Siefke discussed her son’s arrest for possession of marijuana and having an open alcohol container as a minor when he was in high school in Hawaii. She said that he was put on probation and had to attend mandatory alcohol classes and participate in mandatory drug screening, but he consistently tested positive for marijuana. At that point, she tried to figure out why he was struggling with substances, at which point her son told her that Dutra had molested him.
“I phoned the defendant at his job and told him, ‘We have a problem,’ and when I explained what Stephen had told me, he basically shuffled me off, told me I was nuts, and hung up on me,” she said.
Kelli Siefke said she called police in Los Angeles, where Dutra was living at the time, but that her son refused to give a video statement regarding the incident: “He felt shame, he was embarrassed, and didn’t know how to process this type of information.”
She said that she told her father, Gene DiCicco, who called Dutra’s father, his good friend, and while it was not clear how he responded, DiCicco said he believed Stephen. She said the incident put a notable strain on the relationship between the families.
Dutra’s attorney, Christopher Panetta, pointed out some discrepancies between Kelli Siefke’s testimony Tuesday and a pre-trial deposition. In that deposition, she said that she had learned her son was gay and that Dutra allegedly molested him only after Siefke’s drug arrest. She also said in her pre-trial deposition that her son had explained why he did not want to follow up with police, while on Tuesday she said that he refused outright without elaborating.
Panetta also mentioned that in her pre-trial deposition, Kelli Siefke said that she “believed [Stephen] would” do anything for Susie McBride. On Monday, Panetta suggested that McBride, who died in 2023, had pressured Stephen Siefke to make the allegation in the midst of a dispute between Dutra and McBride over Dutra’s father’s estate.
Siefke’s friends from his adolescence, who all live out of state, testified on video. Their recorded testimonies were played for the court.
Amber Beddow met Siefke in Hawaii, where the two were neighbors. She said that after they had been friends for about a year, in late middle school, Stephen told her about the alleged molestation. She said he seemed “nervous and not comfortable sharing it,” and the two didn’t mention it much after that. She added that, about a year ago, he told her that he was going to go forward with a lawsuit.
“He mentioned that he had found out that Jimmy was getting involved in something that was going to be around children, and I know that was a major concern for Stephen,” she said.
Beddow’s testimony included some discrepancies from Siefke’s story as well. She said that he told her that he was sleeping on the couch at Dutra’s house when the alleged molestation happened, although past versions of the story have said he was on an air mattress. Dutra said he never owned an air mattress when he testified on Monday. Beddow also said that Siefke told her that Dutra came into his family’s house that night alone, while previous versions mention that he came home with another unknown person.
Monica Arguello became friends with Siefke in elementary school, and then reconnected with him around 2013, when the two ended up rooming together in San Francisco. It was then that Siefke told her of the alleged molestation.
“He, at that point, did not tell me the name of the person, but he did divulge to me that he had been sexually assaulted by an adult,” she said. “He didn’t go into any specific details, but that was something causing him a lot of emotional distress.”
Arguello and another friend of Siefke’s who lived with him in San Francisco, Andrea Nuñez, who testified in person Tuesday, recall Siefke being averse to physical touch during their times together.
“We had people that were very touchy and I could tell that made Stephen really uncomfortable,” said Nuñez, before also testifying about Siefke sharing the story of the alleged molestation.
Siefke’s partner of nearly 15 years, Blaze Rexroat, testified that Siefke has disliked certain intimate acts that remind him of the alleged incident.
“When I would try to push the issue, he told me about why he has that boundary and why it would never be something I should ever push past,” he said.
Rexroat said the alleged incident has affected Siefke’s life in other ways. When the two lived in Seattle and Siefke worked as a property manager, he risked losing his job because he refused to sign off on an applicant who was a registered sex offender, despite that being against fair housing laws.
Rexroat and Nuñez both said that filing the civil lawsuit has been extremely difficult for Siefke to deal with, and that he has grown increasingly withdrawn over the course of the past two years. Rexroat said he does all of the grocery shopping because Siefke is afraid of being recognized in public.
“In Watsonville, he doesn’t really go out,” said Nuñez, adding that it is starkly different from their time living together in San Francisco. “I’ve invited him to go out to eat or go to events around the city and he usually just prefers to stay at home.”
Tuesday’s testimony finished with general practitioner Dr. Stephen Woo of Tacoma, Washington, testifying via video about treating Siefke with Klonopin for panic attacks, but adding that he could not recall Siefke speculating about what might have been contributing to the panic attacks, nor mentioning past sexual abuse.
The trial continues Wednesday, when the plaintiff’s case is expected to wrap up.
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