SAN FRANCISCO — Seven years ago, Monterey police officers investigated an alleged sexual assault involving Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, at a hotel in the seaside city, but the inquiry did not lead to any criminal charges.
In a brief statement late Thursday, the city manager’s office in Monterey confirmed the sexual assault investigation, but provided few details. Hegseth was a scheduled speaker at a women’s Republican convention that weekend.
The city said the incident was reported to have happened between almost midnight on October 7, 2017, and 7 a.m. the next morning at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on Del Monte Golf Course, less than a mile from Monterey Bay and across Highway 1 from the Naval Postgraduate School.
The Monterey Police Department investigated an alleged sexual assault at 1 Old Golf Course Road,” the city said. It said the victim’s name was confidential and that the alleged assault was reported on Oct. 12, 2017. The city said no weapons were involved, but that there was a report of “contusions to right thigh.”
The city declined to release the police report, saying it was exempt from public disclosure, and said it would not make any further remarks on the probe.
The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office did not reply to a request for comment late Thursday, but an online database indicated no criminal charges had been filed against Hegseth in that county.
Hegseth spoke as a guest that weekend at the California Federation of Republican Women 40th Biennial Convention, which held its event at the Monterey hotel. Social media posts show Hegseth speaking to the group, which also included an Elvis Presley impersonator singing “God Bless America.”
According to a source cited by the publication, Hegseth said in the meeting that the encounter was consensual and characterized the incident as a “he said, she said.”
Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, told Vanity Fair, “This allegation was already investigated by the Monterey police department and they found no evidence for it.”
Hegseth, a Fox News contributor, was already considered a controversial choice to lead the Pentagon. The 44-year-old Army veteran has a history of contentious comments, including that the U.S. military should reinstate a ban on women serving in ground combat roles.
By MATTHIAS GAFFNI/San Francisco Chronicle
Matthias Gafni is an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. He investigates stories on corruption, child and adult sexual abuse, criminal justice, aviation, healthcare and more. In 2017, Gafni won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for his work on the Ghost Ship fire. In 2018, he was named SPJ Reporter of the Year in Northern California. The following year, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for his work covering the Camp Fire. In 2020, he won a Polk Award for military reporting of a COVID-infested aircraft carrier and in 2020 he won an IRE award for his coverage of an East Bay hospital. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and graduated from UC Davis.
