How a congressional harassment claim led to a secret $220,000 payment

By Kimberly Kindy and Michelle Ye Hee Lee January 14 at 6:56 PM

Winsome Packer had a plum overseas assignment, an apartment in Vienna and a six-figure salary as an adviser to a Washington congressman when it all came crashing down.

Her boss, Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.), suggested that he should stay with her when he was visiting Austria, she claimed. He made comments she considered sexually suggestive and hugged her in a way she felt inappropriate.

Hastings denies that he harassed her, and one of his attorneys claims Packer created “a fiction” with her accusations, which were made under a process Congress set up to handle sexual harassment claims against its members.

The contentious case dragged on for four years, and in the end Packer was awarded $220,000 in one of the largest secret settlements paid out in recent years by the congressional Office of Compliance.

But both sides say the process is unfair and abusive to the accuser and the accused. Packer said she has not recovered from the harrowing legal fight, and Hastings said his reputation was damaged. As lawmakers prepare to unveil bipartisan legislation as early as this week that would alter the current system for handling such claims, both Packer and Hastings said their dispute reveals a broken law that must be fixed.

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