Mayor Bob Filner
WEIGHING IN: Peggy Shannon, 67, arrives at a press conference yesterday to accuse Mayor Bob Filner (inset). (
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A 67-year-old great-grandma stepped forward yesterday as the latest woman to claim she, too, is a victim of sexual harassment by San Diego’s sleazy mayor, Bob Filner.
Peggy Shannon, who works at a senior-citizens service desk at San Diego’s city hall, said Filner forcibly kissed her and made lewd remarks.
“Do you think I could go eight hours in one night?” the mayor allegedly asked her.
The woman, who has two great-grandsons, said she was appalled by the mayor’s nasty behavior and that it traumatized her.
“I knew he was engaged, and I felt very shocked,” she said. “On the day that Mayor Filner grabbed me and kissed me, I went home and cried.”
Shannon, represented by attorney Gloria Allred, is the 16th woman to accuse Filner, 70, of sexual misconduct. She demanded his resignation.
“Every day I went to work, I had butterflies in my stomach because I did not know what was going to happen the next time the mayor came by my desk,” she said.
Politicians from both parties in San Diego have called on the Democratic mayor to resign immediately.
Filner says he has undergone counseling to treat a pattern of disrespectful and “intimidating” treatment of women but has rejected calls to step down.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi scolded the mayor last night on Twitter.
“Mayor Filner is out of rehab, he should be out of the Mayor’s Office — should not subject San Diegans to pain & expense of a recall,” the House Democratic leader wrote.
Filner’s boorish behavior has even banned him from all San Diego-area Hooters restaurants.
Four area Hooters have posted signs that Filner will not be served at their establishments because they “believe women should be treated with respect.”