The one-time leader of the Sierra Club wants a Washington court to toss out claims that he sexually harassed the organization’s former chief of staff.
In a Friday filing in D.C. Superior Court, attorneys for Ben Jealous argued that Laura Maretich waited too long to file her claims against him. The document does not address the validity of Maretich’s claims, but Jealous has called the allegations “totally and completely false.”
Maretich’s claim against Jealous — that he repeatedly harassed her between February 2024 and “early” April 2025 before he was ousted from the organization last summer — is time-barred under a one-year statute of limitations under the District of Columbia Human Rights Act, attorneys for Jealous said.
Maretich submitted a formal complaint to Sierra Club’s board of directors on April 18, 2025, and was subsequently placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of Jealous. Her court filing said the board fired Jealous as Sierra Club executive director last summer “because, in whole or in part, of” her complaint.
