(CNN) – The man on the voicemail is flirty and clearly asking for a date. But it’s the name on the message that’s raising red flags.
“Hi, it’s your newly favorite congressman, Bob Filner. You know, the one who fell in love with you at your last speech,” he told Eldonna Fernandez.
He also asked her out to dinner in the message.
“I don’t want to wait ’til you come back to have dinner with you,” he said.
That message was left a year ago, while Filner was serving his 10th term as a U.S. congressman. He had met Fernandez at a National Women’s Veterans Association of America “Healing and Hiring Fair.” [...]
Fernandez, along with Army veteran Gerri Tindley, joins 11 other women who have publicly accused Filner, 70, of making unwanted advances, from groping to verbal passes.
They are also among at least eight female veterans and members of the National WomenÂ’s Veterans Association of America (NWVAA) in San Diego who have made accusations against the mayor. Almost all of the women were victims of sexual assault while they were in the militaryÂ…
“He went to dinners, asked women out to dinners, grabbed breasts, buttocks. The full gamut. Everything that is complete violation of what we stand for,” [NWVAA President Tara] Jones said. “He’s a sexual predator. And he used this organization for his own personal agenda.”
“We’re all victims of military sexual assault. It appears to me that he was targeting the organization and hitting on the women of this organization because they were easy prey,” Fernandez said. “He’s part of an organization that’s against sexual assault and sexual violence against women and sexual harassment. And he’s doing the very thing that we are fighting to make stop in our service and in our country.”