Intro last March Garcia Figaroa filed a lawsuit against Nathan Fletcher the former San Diego Metropolitan transit system employee alleged Fletcher sexually assaulted her when he was chairman of the agency Fletcher denies the allegations he dropped out of the Nathan Fletcher race for a state senate seat just days before the allegations surfaced by that point his campaign had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions more than a year later he's still using money from his dormant campaign to pay for his legal defense in court campaign Campaign Finance Finance disclosures show his attorneys have build the campaign for more than half a million dollar this is a somewhat legally murky area Jessica levenson is a lyola law school professor and campaign Finance expert she says state election laws allow campaigns to spend money on matters reasonably related to political or legislative matters but not on personal expenses so at the bottom of this all of it depends on whether the lawsuit is filed against Nathan Fletcher as an individual or if it's filed against Nathan Fletcher because he's a FTC candidate the California fair political practices commission enforces campaign Finance laws the fppc received a complaint about Fletcher's spending and is considering whether it will open an investigation Allison Hayward is a former fppc commissioner she says Fletcher's use of campaign contributions to pay his attorney's fees might be legal technically but that doesn't mean it will sit with well with voters it seems a little bait and switchy to me um and I think it does to a lot of people Fletcher's campaign attorney did not respond to requests for comment the campaign previously argued that the lawsuit was only filed against Fletcher because he was running for office and therefore the spending is legal Scott Rod KPBS news