Mendez

In this case involving sexual assault and battery, we are called upon to review the trial court’s denial of defendants’ motions under Code of Civil Procedure section 2017, subdivision (d), to discover plaintiff’s sexual conduct with third persons. We will leave the trial court’s denial undisturbed after reviewing the several grounds asserted by defendants as justifying such discovery.

On August 5, 1985, Helen Peery (plaintiff) and her husband Claude filed a complaint against Robert Mendez, the County of Merced (County) and Doe defendants. She claimed that in August of 1984 Deputy Robert Mendez, a fellow employee in the Merced County Sheriff’s Department, accosted her, grabbed her in a forceful manner, locked her in a room, grabbed her hair and forced her to orally copulate him. She further alleges that on three other occasions he assaulted her at work and attempted to have her orally copulate him again. Each of the assaults culminated in threats to her or her family if she divulged the assaults.

Ultimately she reported the incidents to her superiors who allegedly assigned the investigation of the matter to one of Mendez’s best friends. She claims that although the…