Dutra trial: Fellow councilmember describes troubled romantic relationship; ex-partner defends Dutra

Casey Clark represents District 5 on the Watsonville City Council. Jimmy Dutra represents District 6. On Thursday, Clark testified in a civil trial in Santa Cruz County Superior Court that he witnessed abusive behavior by Dutra when they were previously involved in a romantic relationship.

After Dutra allegedly groped the buttocks of the adult son of Watsonville’s former city manager at a city event in 2018, Clark said he helped connect him with Stephen Siefke, the man who is suing Dutra over accusations that he molested him in 2005 when Siefke was 12 and Dutra was 30.

Both testified this week about their relationship with Susie McBride, the partner of Dutra’s late father. McBride, who was involved in a bitter dispute with Dutra over his father’s estate, was like a “second mother” to Siefke. Years before he filed his suit, she had urged him to come forward with allegations against Dutra that might damage his political career.

McBride was also friends with Clark, who served as an informal caretaker for her before her death in 2023.

Siefke’s suit was filed in October 2022, a month before Dutra faced voters in a race for county supervisor that he would go on to lose. Two years later, it has gone to trial as Dutra runs for reelection to the Watsonville City Council.

His opponent in this fall’s race, Trina Coffman-Gomez, came up Thursday because her daughter, Gabrielle Gomez, was named as a witness to the alleged 2018 groping incident that was raised in testimony on Wednesday.

Also on Thursday, Dutra took the stand to again deny the charges against him and talk about the impact the allegations have had on his life and career.

His sister and a former partner took the stand to contradict details Siefke had shared about the circumstances around the alleged abuse in 2005 and its aftermath.

Wide-ranging Thursday testimony

Thursday’s testimony began with Damacio Montoya, the 29-year-old son of former Watsonville City Manager Charles Montoya, who on Wednesday alleged that Dutra grabbed his buttocks during an event in Watsonville in 2018.

Montoya spoke about text messages between him and Gabrielle Gomez in which Gomez said both she and her sister-in-law saw the alleged groping.

Montoya said that the alleged incident angered him, but he did not react in the moment so as to not damage his father’s reputation or cause himself any issues while he was training for the military, which he joined a month later. Montoya said he believed Dutra was drunk during the incident due to his demeanor, a scent of alcohol and a “slight slurring of his speech.” Siefke testified on Wednesday that he smelled alcohol on Dutra at the time he was allegedly molested in Los Angeles in 2005.

Clark was next on the witness stand and, under questioning by Siefke’s attorney, Dana Scruggs, said that prior to his stint on the Watsonville City Council, he and Dutra were briefly involved romantically. Clark said he ended the relationship because he was “tired of the mental and psychological abuse.” He said he gave Dutra the benefit of the doubt for a long time because his father had recently died.

“Someone acting out of order and erratic when something happens like that, especially when it was unexpected, I gave him passes to him for his bad behavior,” he said, adding that it was worse when Dutra drank. “But there came a time where I could no longer accept it.”

Clark discussed his relationship with McBride, the ex-partner of Dutra’s father. He said that while he did help her with daily tasks, he was not paid or employed as her caregiver: “It was just people helping people.” However, Clark did become the trustee of McBride’s estate, which he said he was not aware of until after her death.

Clark said mailings targeting Dutra in the county supervisor race that came out after the lawsuit was filed in 2022 were “disturbing,” and that he knew McBride was aware of their existence. Dutra’s attorney, Christopher Panetta, read an excerpt from Clark’s pre-trial deposition in which he said that McBride was “ecstatic to see stuff like that. Jovial, in fact.” 

Clark said McBride was in part upset with Dutra because she had loaned his father money for their house in Hawaii, and felt that he used it to bail Jimmy out financially instead.

Dutra’s ex-partner disputes Siefke details

Christopher Fuentes, who was Dutra’s partner at the time of the alleged molestation in 2005, said that he frequently stayed overnight at Dutra’s house in Los Angeles and slept in his bedroom. He corroborated Dutra’s claim that the couch Siefke claims Dutra and another man slept on the night the alleged incident occurred was “a pretty small couch” and expressed doubt that people could sleep comfortably on it. He said neither he nor Dutra ever slept on the couch.

Fuentes said that, while the two did not live together, there was no infidelity during their relationship to his knowledge. He added that there was no air mattress in Dutra’s house, and the guest room was set up for people to use. Siefke had originally said that he slept on an air mattress in the living room the night of the alleged incident. Fuentes also said that drinking was never a problem for Dutra, and he never saw him act inappropriately when he drank.

Fuentes said he never saw Dutra act inappropriately with children, and added that neither he nor any of their friends would have allowed that kind of behavior.

Dutra’s sister, Lori Dutra, pushed back on previous testimony in the trial that described a deterioration of the Siefke and Dutra families’ friendship after Siefke eventually told his mother about the alleged abuse. While she said she was not close with Gene DiCicco — Siefke’s grandfather and close friend of her and Jimmy Dutra’s father — she did know him, and said she wasn’t aware of any issue or rift formed between him and her father. In fact, she testified that she saw her father and DiCicco having lunch together the week before her father died in 2016.

Dr. Jessica Foley, a neuropsychologist at UCSF Health, testified to express doubt regarding the previous testimony of Dr. Anthony Urquiza, in which he suggested that Siefke suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, general anxiety disorder and persistent depression disorder.

Foley said that she reviewed Siefke’s medical records and depositions from Urquiza and Dr. Michael McGrath, who treated Siefke as a patient in Hawaii. She said that a PTSD diagnosis requires a high threshold of severity, and while she said an incident like the one Siefke has alleged can have lasting effects, she “has never rendered a diagnosis of PTSD based upon an incident of this nature.”

“That’s not to say that it can’t happen or that other people might debate this point, as it has been debated,” Foley said. “But it’s very important to consider that extreme nature.”

Foley added that Siefke exhibits some of the signs of a PTSD diagnosis, but not all, and all must be met in some way to constitute such a diagnosis.

During cross-examination by Scruggs, though, she said that none of her peer-reviewed work, book reviews and other works relate to PTSD or child sexual abuse, and that she does not regularly treat patients in a clinical setting at this point in her career.

Dutra: ‘Darkest time of my life’

Jimmy Dutra returned to the stand on Thursday to dispute details from Siefke’s testimony about what happened in 2005. He elaborated on the conflict surrounding his father’s estate, saying McBride wanted her share immediately, but he could not do that, because his father’s business partner was suing the trust.

“She didn’t understand that her stuff was being held in case there were any losses and she was really upset about that,” Dutra said of McBride said. “I held everything, no one could do anything. The only spending could have been what was happening in the trust. If I had given out those items and we had lost [the lawsuit], I would have been personally responsible for the value of what she was supposed to get.”

Dutra called the time since Siefke filed his lawsuit “the darkest time of my life,” and said how deeply distressing the past two years have been. He added that all he has ever wanted to do is serve his community.

“It threw my world into chaos – I can’t even describe how I felt when that first mailer came out,” he said. “I had to call my mom because I literally thought I was having a heart attack. I felt like all of this hard work I was doing was crashing down around me, and honestly, I felt like people were kicking me and keeping me down.”

Now, Dutra says no matter the outcome of the trial, he worries he’ll never have the same opportunities again, especially as an openly gay man — a status he said often gives someone very little room for error.

Dutra once again firmly denied the allegations against him, and said he barely knows Siefke.

“I don’t remember him. He’s trying to create this relationship, and I don’t even know you,” he said. “I met you one time. That’s where I’m struggling, because when they went to the papers, they made it look like I was this family member, like I was a big brother to him.”

Both the plaintiff and defense rested their cases on Thursday. Both sides are set to give their closing arguments at 9 a.m. Friday, after which the jury will begin deliberation. Siefke is seeking damages in an amount to be determined.

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