A judge has thrown out the remainder of a lawsuit from former state legislator Roger Hernandez that accused his ex-wife, state Sen. Susan Rubio, and her sister, Assemblymember Blanca Rubio, of interfering with his efforts to secure government contracts for the clients of his consulting business.
Judge Allison Westfahl Kong granted summary judgment to the Rubio sisters and dismissed the lawsuit’s two remaining causes in a Sept. 11 ruling, records show.
“We are gratified that the Court saw through Mr. Hernandez’s baseless and harassing claims and recognized the truth about the abuse suffered by Senator Rubio,” said Allen Secretov, lead counsel for the Rubios, in a statement. “This complete legal victory not only clears the names of Senator Susan Rubio and Assemblymember Blanca Rubio, but also sends a strong message that they will not be intimidated by false and malicious litigation.”
Hernandez sued the sisters, former El Monte Councilmember Maria Morales and El Monte City Manager Alma Martinez in May 2022. He accused the Rubios of defaming him by publicly bringing up domestic violence allegations against him and of interfering with his post-political career by pressuring the El Monte City Council into rejecting a contract with an energy company that had hired him to lobby in their favor.
Hernandez alleged he was “deprived of the consulting fees he would have otherwise collected” as a result and had suffered damages exceeding $25,000, according to court filings.
Hernandez, a former West Covina councilmember, served in the state Assembly from 2010 to 2016 before he was termed out. Blanca Rubio succeeded Hernandez in his former Assembly seat that same year and her sister, Susan Rubio, a former Baldwin Park councilmember, was elected to the state Senate in 2018.
Susan Rubio and Hernandez married in June 2013. Hernandez filed for divorce a year-and-a-half later.
Amid the divorce, a court granted Susan Rubio a three-year domestic violence restraining order against Hernandez in 2016. The restraining order was renewed in 2020 and in 2025, according to a spokesperson for the state senator.
During their marriage, Hernandez accused Susan Rubio of having an affair on multiple occasions and, in two cases, “punched” or “socked” her in the chest when he confronted her with his suspicions, according to her written declaration. He also broke several of her personal belongings, including her car windshield and two cellphones “in a fit of anger,” according to the document.
A judge previously dismissed the defamation portion of Hernandez’s lawsuit in October 2022 on the grounds that Hernandez could not demonstrate that the statements of domestic violence were false, because legal doctrine “bars re-litigation of the issue of whether S. Rubio was a victim of domestic violence by Hernandez due to a prior domestic violence restraining order proceeding.”
Morales and Martinez were dropped from the lawsuit in 2023.
Earlier this month, Judge Westfahl Kong threw out the rest of the case because she found there was not sufficient evidence to demonstrate a “causal link between their (the Rubios’) alleged conduct and the disruption of Hernandez’s contract” with the energy company. The El Monte City Council, which voted down the energy company’s proposal, had the discretion to do so, and Hernandez’s expectation of receiving a financial benefit was “too speculative” as a result, the judge wrote.
Westfahl Kong did not grant Hernandez permission to file an amendment and vacated an Oct. 7 trial date during her ruling. The Rubios are entitled to recover their costs of defending the litigation. A memorandum of costs submitted to the court by their attorney asks for a total of $30,259.