On July 22, 2013, attorney Gloria Allred announced at a press conference that her firm had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Filner on behalf of the mayor's former communications director. By August 26, 19 women had publicly claimed that Filner had sexually harassed them, including a retired admiral, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who appeared at one of his fundraisers, a 67-year-old great-grandmother who worked for the city, a nurse who said Filner demanded a date in exchange for helping a Marine who had suffered a brain injury and PTSD during service in Iraq, and several female members of the U.S. armed forces who had been raped during their service. In the last two instances, Filner's contact with the women stemmed from his position at the time as ranking member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.