Leanne Rosa had worked for Kauaʻi Judge Randal Valenciano for about 18 years when, she says, he began conducting himself in a “sexually suggestive” way, subjecting her to “sexualized hugs” and “unwanted and unwelcome touching” in the courthouse.

The alleged unwanted behavior began in 2015 and came to an end in 2023 when she filed a federal employment claim and then a federal lawsuit against him.

Valenciano denied the accusations in federal court filings. The case had been scheduled to go to trial in August.

Instead, Rosa and Valenciano have now agreed to dismiss the claims and state taxpayers are poised to pay Rosa $90,000 to settle the case. House and Senate committees have approved the settlement at the request of the Attorney General’s Office, one of 17 claims against the state totaling $5.9 million the office recommended paying out. The settlement is headed to votes in the Legislature’s money committees.

According to the federal lawsuit, Rosa’s working relationship with Valenciano began in 1997 when he hired her to help out in his law office in Līhuʻe. At the time he was also a Kauaʻi County Council member, a position he held from 1990 until 2002.

When he was appointed chief judge of the Kauaʻi Fifth Circuit Court in 2007, he took Rosa with him as his assistant.

Rosa had previously filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before bringing the federal lawsuit. The EEOC concluded its investigation “without findings” and gave Rosa a “Notice of Right to Sue.”

In a 2023 Civil Beat story about the case, Honolulu lawyer Eric Seitz, who represents Rosa, said he couldn’t answer why Rosa stayed on the job with Valenciano so long if he was making her uncomfortable. At the time, he declined to make her available for an interview and she couldn’t be reached independently.

Last week, Seitz said in a written statement to Civil Beat that Rosa has been reassigned to a new job with the Kauaʻi court system “where she will have minimal contacts with the judge.”

“It was not a happy situation for anyone involved,” Seitz said in his statement.

Valenciano did not respond to messages left at his chambers on Kauaʻi on Thursday and Friday. A spokesperson for the state Attorney General’s office declined to comment on the case apart from a brief written description of the settlement provided to state lawmakers.

Rosa previously sued former Kauaʻi Deputy Chief Court Administrator Ernest Barreira for alleged sexual harassment and retaliation in 2010. Barreira also denied the allegations, and that case was settled in 2011.

The terms of that settlement were unavailable, but court minutes show that then-Third Circuit Court Judge Ronald Ibarra — who presided over the case — declared that “no one prevailed” in the dispute.