Capitol harassment: Lewd, intimidating conduct has created a 'toxic' Statehouse, staffers and lawmak

Source: Desmoines Register



Capitol harassment: Lewd, intimidating conduct has created a 'toxic' Statehouse, staffers and lawmakers say



Jason Clayworth, Des Moines Register Published 7:00 a.m. CT Oct. 14, 2018


Kirsten Anderson, a former communications director for the Iowa Senate Republican caucus, reacts to the verdict in her sexual harassment lawsuit against the State of Iowa after she was awarded $2.2 million by a Polk County jury.

For more than a decade, Iowa legislators and staff members engaged in lewd and sexually aggressive behavior, creating a "toxic" environment and a "culture of secrets" at the state Capitol, according to detailed court depositions reviewed by the Des Moines Register.

The depositions, taken under oath by about two-dozen lawmakers and legislative staffers, comprise more than 1,000 pages of documents previously unreleased to the public. They were part of a landmark sexual harassment case that resulted in the state of Iowa paying a $1.75 million settlement last year.

The depositions detail more than 50 instances of inappropriate behavior that played out over years at the Capitol, including allegations that:

Multiple staff members watched pornography at work, including male staffers who gathered to view a video of topless women jumping on a trampoline to the tune of “Jingle Bells.”............................


Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/2018/10/14/iowa-capitol-legislature-sexual-harassment-me-too-depositions-lawmakers-porn-senate-kirsten-anderson/1187425002/

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Chuck Grassley needs to clean up his own state!!

................ Staff members and lawmakers described female co-workers and lobbyists in lewd or sexually derogatory ways. For example, male legislative staffers would “go out in like a little pack,” assessing the physical attributes of female lobbyists. One male legislative employee called women "c----", a vulgar term referring to female genitalia.
A senator gossiped with a colleague that a female senator was sexually promiscuous, while another senator asked a staff member on the Senate floor about the size of her nipples. The latter senator's drinking problems prompted a Senate leader to bring a breathalyzer to test his colleague before he spoke on the Senate floor......

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Sen. Rick Bertrand, R-Sioux City, attends a 2018 subcommittee meeting (Photo: Rodney White/The Register)

Bertrand describes himself as a "foul-mouthed Irish Catholic." But he said he has cleaned up the way he talks in the wake of the Anderson case and the #MeToo movement, which has drawn national attention to workplace harassment.