Michigan lawmaker says senator harassed her at orientation

Source: AP

By DAVID EGGERT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan lawmaker alleged Tuesday that a fellow legislator sexually harassed her during a Capitol orientation 14 months ago, coming forward a week after a young female reporter said the same senator made a sexist comment to her before a group of high school boys.

Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a Royal Oak Democrat, filed a complaint against Republican Sen. Peter Lucido. She said she introduced herself to him at a training session two days after she defeated an incumbent in the November 2018 election.

“He reached out to shake my hand, and with the other hand, held very low on my back, with fingers grazing my hip and upper rear,” she wrote in a statement that was included with her complaint. “He asked what my name was and where I was from. After a bit of back and forth, he asked, ‘Who’d you run against?’ I responded, ‘I beat Marty Knollenberg.’ At that moment, still holding his hand on my low back, he looked me up and down, raised his eyebrows, and said, ‘I can see why.’”

McMorrow, whose allegation was first reported by Crain’s Detroit Business, told reporters the incident was “deflating” and that she felt like “a piece of meat. ... It implied, ‘You won because of what you look like.’”



FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019, file photo, State Sen. Peter Lucido, R-Shelby Township, speaks after a news conference at the Capitol in Lansing, Mich. Lucido, who is under investigation for allegedly making a sexist comment to a reporter, now faces a sexual harassment complaint from a fellow senator. (AP Photo/David Eggert, File)


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