Updated June 23, 2025
In a restraining order request filed in April 2025, two Google engineers, Raphael Costa and Brian Chen, pictured above, are accused of stalking and harassing their coworker, Jane Doe. In the filing, Doe states that she, Costa, and Chen were part of a fitness group at Google that met regularly from 2022-2023. In May 2023, after witnessing some concerning behavior from Costa and Chen, she stopped meeting with the group and left their shared Discord server.
In the months that followed, Doe maintained minimal contact with the group, but continued to organize team events, which included Costa. In addition, she would occasionally visit their shared office. Each time, Costa would repeatedly pressure Doe to rejoin Discord and resume working out with the group. She declined, citing “work-life boundaries.”
Chen left the company in August 2023. The group met for a farewell dinner in September 2023, marking the last time Doe saw Chen. During this dinner, the group pressured Doe to either quit or transfer to another team. Afterwards, Costa and Doe’s managers discussed topics that Doe had mentioned at the dinner but had not spoken with them about. Doe’s therapist also began dissuading Doe from meeting with Costa and Chen.
In January 2024, Doe met with their management team, seeking advice about unwanted attention from another colleague. The managers then began referencing portions of Jane’s web activity that she had not discussed with anyone. This behavior escalated in April and Doe’s friends and other colleagues also began mentioning Doe’s web activity.
In June 2024, Doe discovered that her phone had been sharing her gBoard activity with her work profile. She promptly uninstalled the work profile, but her coworkers continued to reference her web activity. She also saw multiple apps on her phone opening and closing on their own and heard unprompted responses from her Google Home mini. Doe reported this behavior to Google’s IT department, which confirmed it as malware. She was asked to reset her devices, which she did, but the behavior persisted.
Doe also began hearing strange noises from the apartment above hers, with occasional footsteps following her around. In October 2024, Doe texted Costa, apologizing for deleting their shared Discord server. A few days later, multiple items were stolen from her car while it was parked in her apartment garage. Doe then saw multiple Instagram Reels and ads for the stolen items. She also began noticing items either missing or moved around in her apartment.
Doe moved from San Jose to San Francisco in December 2024, but the noises and thefts followed her and became a daily occurrence. In February, after reporting Costa to HR, somebody broke Doe’s car window and left a kneepad that was stolen from her car in October. Concerned about additional thefts but unable to focus at home, she decided to take some time off to compile documentation and file a restraining order. On April 9, Doe was fired for job abandonment.
The hearing occurred in May 2025 in San Francisco. The judge dismissed the case due to lack of evidence and asked Costa and Chen to leave Doe alone.