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- A lawsuit accuses John Garner of luring a potential client into a sexual relationship.
- Garner denied the allegations and said he will address them in court.
- Four of five sexual assault lawsuits against Ethan Conrad were dismissed in August.
A sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against an attorney who represented women accusing prominent Sacramento real estate developer Ethan Conrad of sexual assault.
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John Garner, who was among the attorneys who sued Conrad on behalf of the women, now faces allegations that he tried to lure a single mother into an unwanted sexual relationship by offering her a job and legal help in dealing with an ex-boyfriend.
“I unequivocally deny the allegations of sexual harassment,” Garner said in a written statement to The Sacramento Bee. “I have an obligation to my clients not to litigate them through the media.”
Attorney Glenn Peterson filed the lawsuit last month against Garner on behalf of a Placer County woman identified in court documents as Jane Doe. Peterson said Garner continues to demonstrate a complete lack of accountability for his actions.
“As alleged in the complaint (lawsuit), he victimized a vulnerable single mother who looked to him for advice and guidance to help her with a most sensitive and volatile domestic violence problem,” Peterson said in a written statement to The Bee. “He exploited the attorney/client relationship, and his position of trust and influence over her.”
Four of five lawsuits against Ethan Conrad dismissed
Authorities have not filed criminal charges against Conrad based on the allegations made by five women accusing the real estate developer of sexual assault. Conrad has told The Bee “that definitively there’s no validity at all to any of the allegations, which are all simply extortion attempts which will fail.”
Of the five sexual assault lawsuits filed against Conrad since November 2024 in Sacramento civil court, four were dismissed in August, with both sides agreeing to pay their own legal costs and fees. The dismissals did not include any admission of wrongdoing. Documents in Sacramento’s courts do not indicate whether financial settlements were reached in connection with the dismissals. One case remains pending, with a Dec. 8 hearing scheduled in Sacramento Superior Court.
Conrad’s Sacramento-based company, Ethan Conrad Properties, owns properties across the region, including the Renaissance Tower, one of Sacramento’s tallest buildings. Conrad acquired the building with a winning $21 million auction bid in 2024. The company’s blue-and-yellow real estate signs mark properties it owns.
Conrad’s legal team includes Camille Vasquez, who was among the attorneys who represented actor Johnny Depp in his defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife, Amber Heard.
“This is a case about a malicious campaign to destroy a man’s good name and extort money through litigation abuse and defamation,” Vasquez has said about Conrad in court documents.
In June 2025, Anh Phoong, a Sacramento-based personal injury lawyer, joined attorney John Garner in representing three of the five women suing Conrad. Two of the lawsuits were filed in Sacramento Superior Court and the other was filed in U.S. District Court Eastern District of California.
Phoong, who has billboard celebrity status across the state and offices in La Riviera, announced then that her firm was now taking on sexual assault cases, including lawsuits filed against Conrad. Phoong said she met with the three women before deciding they were “strong enough to seek justice,” so she wanted to be their voice in court.
On Thursday, Phoong did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment about the allegations against Garner or the dismissed lawsuits against Conrad.
Accused attorney suggests ulterior motive
In the sexual harassment lawsuit filed Sept. 23 against Garner, Jane Doe alleges the Fair Oaks-based attorney sent her an increasingly explicit series of text messages about her body, drugs and sexual acts he wanted her to perform while working at his law office. The lawsuit includes screenshots of text messages purportedly from Garner, including a plan to place a sofa in his office for her to have sex with him.
In one exchange, the sender made an explicit sexual proposition while discussing a job at his law firm and the possibility of helping her deal with her ex-boyfriend.
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“This is a lot and not really the job I am looking for,” the woman replied, according to a screenshot included in the lawsuit.
“This case will be entirely proven by his own outrageous text messages, which prove in his own words that he acted in the most reprehensible way, boasting of power and influence over my client’s abuser, boasting of having piles of cocaine and piles of cash, telling my client that he wanted to snort cocaine off her posterior and attempting to lure her into a financially dependent relationship with him,” Peterson, Jane Doe’s attorney, told The Bee. “All of which was done for his own drug-fueled satisfaction, and not out of any legitimate concern for my client.”
Garner suggested an ulterior motive was behind the allegations in the lawsuit against him.
“It is important context that the individual making these accusations is in a personal relationship with a person against whom I have brought multiple lawsuits involving serious allegations of sexual assault,” Garner told The Bee. “Given that context, I believe these allegations and their timing should be viewed with appropriate scrutiny. I will address any legitimate complaint through the proper legal or professional channels, where facts and evidence — not accusations — determine the outcome.”
Peterson is among the attorneys representing Conrad in one of the lawsuits dismissed in August. Peterson said he believes Garner is suggesting that Peterson filed Jane Doe’s lawsuit in retaliation for Garner’s legal action against Conrad.
“That he (Garner) would suggest Ethan Conrad is in any way involved in this is a joke,” Peterson said. “The truly sad irony here is that he claims to be a champion for abused women. He used that champion image to victimize my client.”
Placer County mother seeking legal help
Jane Doe, a single mother with a toddler, first contacted Garner in December 2024 for legal help involving an ex-boyfriend who was also an attorney and an acquaintance of Garner. The lawsuit alleges that her ex-boyfriend acted “in extremely malicious, unstable, and hurtful ways, including publishing nude photos and videos” of her online to harass her.
According to the lawsuit, she obtained a domestic violence restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, who allegedly violated it repeatedly. Garner, who was aware of the online harassment, contacted Jane Doe and offered his legal help. The two began communicating by phone and text message.
Garner told her she could sue her ex-boyfriend and offered her a job at his law firm. Jane Doe alleges that Garner’s text messages then began to include explicit descriptions of sexual acts he wanted to perform with her in the office. Peterson alleges in the lawsuit that Garner tried to pressure Jane Doe into a sexual relationship in exchange for his legal help and a job at his firm.
The lewd messages from Garner continued, according to the lawsuit, including descriptions of sexual acts involving cocaine that he allegedly wanted to perform with Jane Doe.
“Garner further attempted to manipulate Plaintiff (Jane Doe) by posing as the neglected and deprived spouse, telling her that he needed oral sex because he hadn’t had it for so long in his marriage,” Peterson argued in the lawsuit.
Peterson said his client came to believe Garner was “nothing more than a self-dealing con artist” who caused her emotional distress, anxiety and mental suffering.
“If he had even a tiny speck of remorse — or even self-awareness — he would surrender his bar license,” Peterson told The Bee. “Regardless, this lawsuit should forever silence his claims of being a champion of abused women.”
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