[ca] Can A Co-tenant Effectively Prevent Me From Getting Out Of A Joint Lease After Serious Misconduct By Their Guests?

I’m in location: California and share an apartment under a fixed-term joint lease with one co-tenant. I’m trying to understand what options I may have if our living arrangement has become untenable but the other tenant refuses to cooperate with ending or modifying the lease or being amenable to replacing my property damages.

While I was away from the apartment, my co-tenant invited guests into our home. Without my knowledge or permission, those guests entered my private bedroom and engaged in sexual activity in my bed multiple times. I have contemporaneous video/audio documentation of what occurred. I am not alleging that my co-tenant personally entered my room or participated in the conduct.

This resulted in contamination/property issues involving my bed and, more importantly for the lease situation, a complete breakdown of trust in the living arrangement.
There is a provision in our lease stating that residents are responsible for the conduct of their guests/invitees and for damage or lease violations caused by them. It further states that violations by a resident’s guests/invitees can constitute a material violation by that resident. The resident handbook similarly says residents are fully responsible for the conduct of their guests.

I privately contacted management to ask whether, given those circumstances, they would consider releasing me from the lease without the standard early-termination penalty. I specifically told them I am not asking them to mediate our personal dispute or punish my roommate.
Management responded that they consider this primarily a “roommate conflict” and that co-tenants are treated collectively as one household. They gave me two options:
Both tenants agree to terminate the entire lease early and pay the standard lease-break fee (two months’ rent); or
Both tenants agree to remove one roommate, after which the remaining tenant must independently qualify for the apartment.

Management also said any official modification or termination ultimately requires both residents to sign off.
My concern is what happens if the other tenant simply refuses both options. Even if I were willing to pay the entire early-termination fee myself, their explanation seems to suggest the other co-tenant could refuse to consent and prevent me from ending my contractual obligations.

I am already trying to obtain advice from a California tenant attorney/legal aid, so I’m not relying on Reddit as a substitute for legal counsel. I’m mainly hoping someone familiar with California landlord-tenant law or joint leases can point me toward the right issues to ask about.

My questions are:
1. Can one co-tenant on a California fixed-term joint lease effectively prevent another co-tenant from terminating their lease obligations by refusing to consent, even if the departing tenant is willing to comply with/pay for the lease’s early-termination provision?
2. Does it matter legally that the event causing the breakdown involved the other tenant’s invited guests, when the lease expressly makes that tenant responsible for their guests’ conduct and states guest violations can constitute a material lease violation?
3. Is management’s characterization of this as simply a “roommate conflict” legally significant, or is that more likely an internal policy position?
4. Are there any California statutes, cases, tenant remedies, or specific terminology I should be asking a tenant attorney about given these circumstances?

I’m not trying to evict my roommate or get them in trouble at this time. My goal is simply to determine whether there is a lawful way for me to end my involvement in this tenancy if the other co-tenant refuses to cooperate, or if I should continue trying to escalate it to corporate.