Stanislaus County Supervisor Channce Condit and state Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil both are claiming exoneration after the Senate Rules Committee issued its findings from an investigation involving the elected officials.

Alvarado-Gil filed an ethics complaint with state Attorney General Rob Bonta in June 2024, alleging that the supervisor conspired with his father — Chad Condit, the senator’s former chief of staff — to prioritize $5 million in funding for an infrastructure project in his district. Eleven months earlier, the two had posed together on a south Modesto street — smiling and giving a thumbs-up — as they held large ceremonial check made out to the county.

Channce Condit claimed that the senator’s allegation was retaliation for a sexual harassment complaint made against her by his father.

“I am grateful that the process upheld the principles of fairness and due process, and I have been fully exonerated of the false and defamatory claims made against me,” said Condit, who is demanding a formal and public apology from the senator. “From the very beginning, Sen. Alvarado-Gil misused the power and platform of her office by attempting to slander my name and reputation.”

The legislature’s Workplace Conduct Unit (WCU) sent a letter to Alvarado-Gil (R-Jackson), dated May 29, that outlined the findings of its investigation into the matter and that sexual harassment allegations made against her were unfounded.

A portion of the letter read: “The WCU only substantiated one allegation that violated the legislature’s policy on appropriate workplace conduct: that you filed complaints against your former chief of staff and his son … because your former chief of staff had filed a complaint against you.”

The WCU recommended that Alvarado-Gil be reprimanded and required to undergo one-on-one training that focuses on retaliation issues.

“The Senate Rules (Committee), their purview, essentially what they said was that I broke the rules reporting the embezzlement to the Attorney General,” said Alvarado-Gil on Friday. “Because it was an internal matter, I violated employee conduct rules.”

Senator Alvarado-Gil stands by her belief that her former chief of staff illegally manipulated a grant request on behalf of his son’s District 5 to garner him positive publicity.

She also charges that Chad Condit embezzled at least $50,000 from her campaign fund for the benefit of family members and says she has proof.

The senator filed a civil suit against Chad Condit over the alleged embezzlement.

“I am attempting to compile all the evidence,” she told the Courier.

The WCU does not settle the lawsuits between the senator and Chad Condit.

Condit filed suit against Alvarado-Gil and the state, alleging that she caused him physical injury and mental distress while working as her chief of staff. The senator says Chad Condit caused her and her staff stress, allegeding he was abusing drugs and carrying a gun.

After being fired, Chad Condit filed suit against Alvarado-Gil and the state Senate for being in violation of state employment protections. Condit also seeks compensation for lost wages, loss of earning capacity, employee benefits and damages for emotional distress.

Condit claims that beginning in January 2023, Alvarado-Gil began making sexual advances and eventually pressured him into performing sex acts. He has alleged in court documents that she demanded that he perform oral sex on her as a display of his loyalty. His suit asserts that one such alleged act to have taken place in a car on a restroom stop on the way to an Inyo County event – resulted in Condit suffering three herniated discs and an injured hip.

Alvarado-Gil told the Courier that: “There is absolutely zero evidence whatsoever of his allegations” and a May 29 letter to the senator from the Senate Rules Committee agreed.

However, there are pending civil court cases that remain on the allegations. One such hearing is scheduled for July 27.

Alvarado-Gil claims Chad Condit manipulated a $5 million state grant application to fund for curb, gutter and sidewalk in South Modesto.

She said she signed a grant application for the funding to go to the city of Modesto but claims Chad Condit engaged in a “back room deal” where the funds were instead channeled to Stanislaus County so his son could score political points with his constituents. She claims Chad Condit made the switch and told fellow staff members to “not tell the senator.”

She also asserts that she never worked with Supervisor Condit to secure the grant for Stanislaus County.

Alvarado-Gil said she suspected something was “fishy” at the July 14, 2023 event on Eureka Street where she and Channce Condit heralded the grant award and posed with a ceremonial $5 million check. Alvarado-Gil said she had ordered the check to be printed by Golden State Reprographics made out to the City of Modesto. But she alleges Chad Condit cancelled the order and ordered the check to be made out to the county. 

She said when she showed up for the July 14, 2023 event under the belief that it was billed as a meeting with South Modesto residents regarding sidewalks. 

“So it was a ‘constituent visit’ and when I got there media there Channce was there. So I kind of walked into it. That’s when I made the complaint that something fishy was going on. This was all orchestrated through his dad.”

Alvarado-Gil claims it was during the south Modesto stop that she noticed that the check was made out to the “County of Stanislaus.”

She didn’t publicly question the check at the event but later began to dig into the switch. That’s when she claims Chad Condit went to Human Resources with complaints.

Alvarado-Gil alleged that Chad Condit “never produced documentation regarding budget requests.”

In an email to the Courier on Friday, Channce Condit was adamant about him being cleared of the cloud of suspicion. He wrote: “Again, from the start I have never been under investigation nor has the county regarding the $5 million the senator helped secure for south Modesto in the CA state budget. In fact we are getting ready to go out to bid in the coming weeks and construction will begin soon in South Modesto.

“Hopefully the Courier … can make right this story that tarnished my reputation due to a false allegation that was never substantiated.”

Last year when Alvarado-Gil called for Attorney General Bonta to investigate the matter, Channce Condit lashed out at her, claiming that she was “talking out of both sides of her mouth,” and charged that the Jackson lawmaker “can no longer be trusted and has lost all credibility.”

He has vowed to help anyone who runs against her in future elections.

Alvarado-Gil told the Courier that she doesn’t believe Channce Condit was involved in the alleged grant switch but does believe “he was just going along with it.

“His response was quite aggressive when the allegations got leaked so I know he’s bothered by being implicated in this.”

In answer to Chad Condit’s claim that he injured his back during an alleged forced oral sex act in a car, Alvarado-Gil asserted that Condit actually injured his back on a family trip to Disneyland with wife, sons and grandchildren.

“He said he was on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and injured himself while exiting the ride while lifting a grandchild out,” the senator said. “All Condit family members were present except Couper, although his daughter and first wife were in attendance.”

Alvarado-Gil said she fired Condit in December 2023, because he was allegedly exhibiting growing signs of alcohol abuse and possible drug abuse which began earlier that year and which “were manifesting as cognitive deficits” that “destroyed office morale.” She claims that Condit carried a gun and she was fearful of him using it.

The senator claims in her counter lawsuit that she began to live in “constant fear of (Condit) and his extended family” because she believed them potentially to be involved in Chandra Levy’s murder.

Alvarado Gil claims that one text from Chad Condit wondered if he could get away with raping her.

“It’s all part of the lawsuit which will become a big giant chunk of information but in the court of public opinion, people love the salacious headlines. In terms of the Central Valley, those who love the Condits will go to the mat for them; those who hate them Condits will do that as well.

“I am not a career politician. This is not me climbing the political ladder. This is me reminding our voters why it’s so difficult for people to run for political office – because you will get dismembered for doing anything good and questioning anything corrupt.”

Alvarado-Gil has made the explosive claim that Chad Condit has knowledge of who murdered Chandra Levy in 2001. Levy was the Modesto woman who interned in Washington, D.C. and who was at the center of a scandal involving Chad’s father, then Congressman Gary A. Condit who would not directly deny allegations that they had a romantic or sexual relationship. Police scoured Rock Creek Park near Washington D.C. where she intended to go running the day she disappeared but her skeletal remains weren’t found until May 2002, a month after Condit lost his re-election bid to Dennis Cardoza.

According to the senator, Chad Condit opened up to her about how the scandal impacted the Condit family after she randomly came into contact with Robert Levy, Chandra’s father, at an event. She claims Chad also shared about the criminal past of his uncle Hoppy Condit, and that he knew “how to make people disappear.”

Alvarado-Gil also claims Chad opened up to her about his father’s affairs and that Levy had become pregnant and “that it was a disrespectful to his mom” and that Carolyn Condit “could not have what he called a bastard child be born and that was the last straw.”

Alvarado-Gil claims Levy was strangled to death but medical examiners have not determined the cause of death because of the deposition of the remains in over a year’s time.

“It got to a point to where it was more and more unsafe and then when he confessed to carrying a weapon while he was driving with me … for me to fear for my safety. In our last conversation was where he was very directly saying that he knows how to make people disappear and ‘I know the truth.’”

She also stated that she thought it was strange that Condit appeared resistant to having his blood drawn at the hospital when ill. Alvarado-Gil had pressed Condit to get blood work done to screen for cancer since she had her own cancer scare.

“It wasn’t that he was afraid of needles. He specifically said to me that he had not gone to a doctor and he would not give up his blood and I questioned whether this was a DNA type of situation.”

Before his hospital visit, he allegedly told to her, “As soon as that (blood draw) happens all of this is going to be over.”

“I didn’t know what he meant but my gut tells me that there is more to that DNA sample or that blood work that was taken from him because that was the first time in 20 years that he allowed anybody to take blood from his body.”

“My belief in what he shared with me is that he had remorse and knowledge of her death and that was enough to destroy his ability to live the life that he wanted,” said Alvarado-Gil. “He spoke of the things he would do for loyalty.”

Alarmed by his behavior late last year, Alvarado Gil ordered Condit to refrain from contacting her and filed a request for a restraining order through the Senate. The request was denied but she was granted permission to fire Condit.

The California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin heralded the Senate’s decision, saying “This outcome confirms what we knew all along, these attacks were purely political, fabricated as retaliation for Senator Alvarado Gil’s courageous decision to leave the Democratic Party. To go to these lengths, jeopardizing her marriage, family, and reputation, is truly disgraceful.”

Attempts to reach Chad Condit for comment were unsuccessful.

Joe Cortez contributed to this article.