http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Area-officials-accused-of-abuse-12464014.php
Area officials accused of abuse
Three politicians answered to claims of harassment
Published 7:36 pm, Saturday, December 30, 2017
Albany
Amid a national uprising over the unbridled mistreatment of women, three Capital Region politicians were dogged this year by allegations of sexual harassment and abuse.
Cohoes Mayor Shawn Morse, state Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin and Milton Supervisor Daniel Lewza all denied the allegations against them and remained in their elected positions, although Lewza's term expires Sunday and he is leaving public office.
Morse remains under investigation by the State Police for allegations he physically abused his wife after she called 911 on Nov. 10 and told a dispatcher that her husband had grabbed her by the neck and thrown her to the ground. Morse's wife, Brenda, told police it was not the first time the Democratic mayor had abused her and that he smashed her phone as she tried to record the incident, according to details of the investigation shared with the Times Union.
On Dec. 10, the Times Union reported that abuse allegations against Morse stretch back decades and involved at least three women. Morse said the allegations were untrue. Less than 10 days later, one of the women, Colleen Keller, who dated Morse in the 1990s and has a son with him, came forward and confirmed that she called police multiple times in the mid-1990s to report abusive behavior by Morse, including an incident when she said he grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off her feet.
Keller said she felt compelled to "come forward with the truth" after Morse denied abusing her or other women.
"He has publicly claimed that I said the abuse never happened," read a one-page statement provided by Keller. "It did happen. ... The abuse started out with me being physically pushed, grabbed and verbally degraded. It escalated from there."
McLaughlin, a Republican who will be sworn in this week as Rensselaer County executive, was secretly recorded last summer berating his top female legislative staff member with vulgar language in a heated exchange that also may have violated the Assembly's sexual harassment policy. The staff member also recorded a conversation with McLaughlin in which she accused him of roughing her up during an argument at his residence on Aug. 7.
McLaughlin, after learning the Times Union was about to publish a story on the incident, produced his own recording in which the staff member acknowledged she had accused him of physical abuse to "bait" him. But the staff member now says she retracted her allegation only after being pressured to do so by McLaughlin, who was campaigning in a Republican primary for the county executive post at the time.
Despite McLaughlin's use of incendiary and vulgar language against a female staff member, and her allegation that he physically abused her, he won the Republican primary in September against Chris Meyer, the former deputy county executive, before narrowly beating Democratic newcomer Andrea Smyth, whose campaign made an issue of McLaughlin's treatment of women.
On Nov. 29, another incident involving alleged sexual harassment against McLaughlin came to light when he was sanctioned by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie for a June 2016 incident in which a female Assembly aide said McLaughlin asked her for nude photos of herself.
The sanctioning of McLaughlin followed a secretive 17-month investigation by the Assembly's Committee on Ethics and Guidance. The investigation, led by CUNY law professor Merrick Rossein, included a review of video footage of the Assembly chamber during the alleged exchange and interviews with McLaughlin, witnesses and legislative staff.
McLaughlin denied asking the woman for nude photos and said his attorney argued that video footage of the incident, which did not include audio, did not show anything unusual.
The Ethics Committee initially issued a private report to Heastie in June that it had split 4-4 on whether to discipline McLaughlin, and recommended he undergo sensitivity training. But the committee, on Rossein's recommendation, reversed its decision in September and concluded McLaughlin was guilty of the harassment after its members determined he leaked information about the investigation, including the name of the alleged victim, to Assembly staffers.
"I just never said a damn thing," McLaughlin said after he was sanctioned, adding that he blamed the committee for the leaks, although he offered no evidence to back up the claim.
The committee, made up of McLaughlin's fellow Assembly members, concluded he leaked information about the case before he was told by the Ethics Committee who had brought the complaint, "undermining his claim (during the initial investigation) that he had no idea who would make such claims against him."
McLaughlin declined to appear before the Ethics Committee in October and November as the committee reopened its investigation.
The sanctions included a letter of admonition, a prohibition against McLaughlin hiring interns and a directive that he cease revealing the name of the complainant or other details of the investigation. In addition, McLaughlin was instructed to reimburse the chamber for the cost of the supplemental sexual harassment and retaliation prevention training he took in July, although it's unclear he can be compelled to pay that fee unless it's garnished from his wages.
In Milton, Lewza's claims that he was not the subject of a harassment complaint filed by his former secretary were proven false when a judge ordered the town to unseal a confidential settlement agreement between Lewza and the woman.
The town took extraordinary steps to keep the agreement secret. It resulted in the former secretary receiving $10,000 and four weeks of severance pay after she left her town job at the end of 2016. She was also allowed to work from home for more than six months and all of her communications with Lewza during that period were conducted through email only.
Under the agreement, the woman also received extended health insurance coverage, and the town and its insurance carrier agreed to pay $25,000 to the law firm that represented her during the investigation.
However, Lewza, a Republican who formerly worked for McLaughlin in the state Assembly, never delivered on a clause in the settlement agreement that stipulated the woman was to be given a $40,000-a-year job with Saratoga County.
The 12-page agreement — without citing any authority from the county — said the woman "will be offered a position with Saratoga County set to commence January 2017 with a full-time, day-shift, weekday work schedule at a salary not less than $40,000 ... commensurate with (her) skills and experiences."
Saratoga County officials said they were unaware of the agreement and that no job had been offered to the woman.
The town of Milton and its insurance carrier later agreed to pay $12,000 to Hearst Corp., which owns the Times Union, to cover the newspaper's legal fees in its court case to have the settlement agreement unsealed. A judge ruled the Times Union was entitled to have its legal fees paid by the town because the newspaper "substantially prevailed" in its arguments that the town had violated the state's Freedom of Information Law.
blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @brendan_lyonstu
