Court extends restraining order against former Arcata mayor Brett Watson
A Humboldt County judge kept a workplace violence order in place against Brett Watson, extending it through early September after repeated efforts to undo it.
A Humboldt County judge extended the workplace violence restraining order against former Arcata mayor Brett Watson through early September.
The order was first sought by the City of Arcata in October 2022, after a temporary order was already in place, and Judge Timothy Canning signed a three-year order on March 17, 2023. Multiple courts have since upheld it, including the First District Court of Appeal in an unpublished June 11, 2024 decision.
The First District Court of Appeal found there was enough evidence to affirm the ruling under California’s Workplace Violence Safety Act. Its opinion recounted repeated texts and calls to the city manager outside work hours, contact on weekends and vacations, unscheduled visits to her office, requests for long hugs and increasingly aggressive behavior during walks they took during the COVID-19 lockdown. The city manager testified that she felt unable to reject Watson’s invitations because he was her boss, and that his conduct made her feel unsafe.
Watson, who was appointed to the Arcata City Council in April 2017 and became mayor in 2019, has continued to deny wrongdoing in court filings. The city concluded he sexually harassed the employee and created a hostile work environment driven by an obsession with her.
The Arcata City Council had already moved against Watson in October 2021, when it unanimously removed him as mayor in a no-confidence vote after allegations surfaced involving city staff. He later lost his bid for reelection to the council in November 2022, but the restraining-order case remained active.
California law allows an employer to seek a workplace violence restraining order on behalf of an employee who has suffered harassment, unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence at work. Such orders can last up to three years, and the extension keeps Watson barred from contacting or entering the workplace of protected city officials while the broader legal fight continues, including a Ninth Circuit appeal filed April 18, 2025 against Arcata and City Manager Karen Diemer.
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