SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Family Justice Center has gained national and international attention as a leader in prevention of domestic abuse. But, a lawsuit filed against the city and city attorney's office may rock the center's reputation.

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City Employee Files Suit Against City, Casey Gwinn Statements Regarding Family Justice Center Lawsuit

The founder of the Family Justice Center, San Diego City Attorney Casey Gwinn said he has handled more than 10,000 domestic abuse cases. Now, many of his employees at the Family Justice Center and at the City Attorney's Office are asking how one of his workers was allegedly abused for years without getting help.

A lawsuit filed in Superior Court detailed how Gwinn's office had been aware that one of its legal secretaries, who remains anonymous, suffered from domestic abuse for at least two years.

"Up to this day, my question to Casey Gwinn is, why hasn't he helped this person?" said Josie Clark, (pictured, left), a city legal secretary.

Clark is suing the city and Gwinn, not for what happened to her co-worker, but for the way she said she was used to cover it up.

Official records show that police responded to numerous calls at the victim's former home on Armacost Road. Several workers at the City Attorney's Office and the Family Justice Center told 10News that the victim came to work with broken bones, bruises, cuts and black eyes.

"If Casey Gwinn didn't notice that on one of his own -- seeing her every single day -- then what is he doing at the Family Justice Center?" questioned Clark.

According to the lawsuit, a long history of severe abuse against a Family Justice Center employee was going to be made public when the woman threatened to kill her husband and was arrested. Clark was then assigned a special project to quietly help the woman.

"(Gwinn) said that my job was going to get her into rehab, because that was the only way she was gong to be able to keep her job," Clark said.

The assignment came from Gwinn, (pictured, right), 10News reported.

Clark took on the new responsibilities that lasted more than two months. She said the woman called her seeking help day and night -- once every half hour at work and at home at 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Late last year, Clark said the woman's estranged husband threatened her life.

"Her husband basically said I was going to regret it for interfering and said he was going to come after me and that he was going to kill us both," Clark told 10News.

After her arrest, Gwinn had the woman working as a receptionist on the 16th floor near his office. But when the death threat allegations against Clark surfaces, the woman was moved to the 11th floor, just 30 feet from Clark.

Last week, Clark's attorneys told City Council members about the case. Gwinn tried to clarify what it was about.

"The matter is described in the special closed session docket as an employment discrimination case. That's the only description of the case," said Gwinn at last week's City Council meeting.

But Clark said the lawsuit could have been avoided if a domestic violence victim in her office would have received the help she needed for abuse that was too obvious to overlook.

"She still comes to the office beaten up, and Casey Gwinn has done absolutly nothing to help her," Clark said.

The lawsuit itself, the plaintiff's attorneys say, is about how Clark was forced into the mess and then discriminated against after she had nervous breakdowns and clinical depression. Conditions, they say, came directly from her "special project" to basically act as a drug, alcohol and abuse counselor for a co-worker.

Both Gwinn and the law firm that was hired by the city to represent this case have denied 10News' request for an interview. They said that this case is a personnel matter that is being litigated in court and they are not going to do any interviews on it. They said the court will handle it.