The Politics Sexual Assault Thread

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

John Falcicchio, Bowser’s former top adviser, accused of sexual harassment

 

A D.C. government employee has filed a sexual harassment complaint against Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s longtime top adviser, John Falcicchio, who resigned abruptly last week after the city launched an investigation into his conduct, the employee’s attorneys said Monday.

 

The employee’s attorneys, Debra Katz and Kayla Morin, said in a statement Monday afternoon that they were representing a District employee who reported “serious allegations of sexual harassment” against Falcicchio, which they said included “longstanding” behavior of “unwelcome advances and sexual contact.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[dfitzo53]

On 3/21/2023 at 3:47 PM, Cooked Crack said:

 

Fascinating to me that only males dissented. The three women on the court supported the more lenient punishment. 

[China]

15 minutes ago, dfitzo53 said:

Fascinating to me that only males dissented. The three women on the court supported the more lenient punishment. 

 

Abhorrent to me that they didn't disbar him.  We see this over and over with lawyers refusing to disbar other lawyers for serious ethical violations.  There should be an independent commission that reviews these things and makes binding recommendations to the bar.  Lawyers policing themselves doesn't seem to work very well.  

[dfitzo53]

4 hours ago, China said:

 

Abhorrent to me that they didn't disbar him.  We see this over and over with lawyers refusing to disbar other lawyers for serious ethical violations.  There should be an independent commission that reviews these things and makes binding recommendations to the bar.  Lawyers policing themselves doesn't seem to work very well.  

Sorry if that wasn't clear, I totally agree. 

 

I'm just kind of floored by the idea that not a single woman on the MO SC thought maybe this creepy old guy should be done. 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Trump adviser groped 2 women in 2021 at Scottsdale club, one tells police

 

A woman says Boris Epshteyn, a special adviser to Donald Trump, repeatedly groped her and her sister inside a Scottsdale nightclub in 2021, according to police body camera footage obtained by The Arizona Republic.

 

Epshteyn, who had worked with Arizona politicians to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss, was accused of sexually assaulting the women at the Bottled Blonde nightclub early in the morning of Oct. 10, 2021.

 

“All night he’s been touching me and my sister, especially my sister. He kind of cornered her and grabbed her and is just making her super uncomfortable,” a 27-year-old woman told police in the body camera footage.

 

The Arizona Republic is not identifying the women, one of whom described Epshteyn’s actions as “molesting” them inside the club.

 

“Touching her chest, touching her hips, touching her crotch,” the woman told police just before police ordered Epshteyn, wearing shorts, sandals and a collared shirt, to sit on a nearby curb that was strewn with chewing gum and cigarette butts.

 

Epshteyn was charged with “assault touching,” “attempted sexual abuse,” “harassment-repeated acts” and “disorderly conduct-disruptive behavior or fighting.”

 

The first three charges were dismissed, but Epshteyn pleaded guilty in Scottsdale City Court to disorderly conduct and served probation. The conviction was set aside by the court in January 2023.

 

Reached by The Republic on Wednesday, Epshteyn declined to comment on the incident.

 

Click on the link for the full article

Edited August 10, 2023 by China

[skinsmarydu]

"Bottled Blonde Nightclub"

[Cooked Crack]

23 minutes ago, China said:

Trump adviser groped 2 women in 2021 at Scottsdale club, one tells police

Seems like the wrong link there

[China]

20 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

Seems like the wrong link there

 

Fixed

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Florida House Clears Lawmaker of Sexually Harassing His Male Staffers

 

A Florida lawmaker accused of creating a sexualized work environment and sexually harassing two male staffers was cleared in a House investigation. That’s the second time this year the Florida House of Representatives found no merit to accusations against Florida Rep. Fabian Basabe, a Republican.

 

“Throughout this process, I never doubted for a moment that I would be cleared of these false and feigned allegations,” Basabe said. “I’d like to thank the investigators for their diligent work in ensuring a thorough examination of the facts; and also express my gratitude to my constituents who stood by me during this challenging time.”

 

Two former employees, legislative aide Nicholas Frevola and former intern Jacob Cutbirth, accused Basabe of perpetually demanding they have sex with him. The allegations were being investigated by the Florida House internally, but the two men also sued Basabe in Florida circuit court.

 

Cindy Myers, an attorney for both men, said that suit remains ongoing. She criticized the internal investigation as incomplete and insincere.

 

“This whole report is just, so concerning and disappointing,” she said.

 

The report said accounts from the accusers ultimately could not be verified.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

US Coast Guard leaders long concealed a critical report about racism, hazing and sexual misconduct

 

For nearly a decade, US Coast Guard leaders have concealed a critical report that exposed racism, hazing, discrimination and sexual assault across the agency.

 

The 2015 “Culture of Respect” study, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, documented how employees complained of a “boys will be boys” and “I got through it so can you” culture. Many said they feared they would be ostracized and retaliated against for reporting abuse and that those who did come forward often had their complaints dismissed by supervisors.

Some of the report’s core findings mirrored those of another secret investigation into rapes and sexual assaults at the Coast Guard’s academy. The existence of that probe, which was dubbed Operation Fouled Anchor and completed in 2019, was revealed by CNN earlier this year. That investigation found that serious misconduct had been ignored and, at times, covered up by high-ranking officials, allowing alleged offenders to rise within the ranks of the Coast Guard and other military branches.

 

Following CNN’s stories on the Fouled Anchor investigation and subsequent Congressional outrage, the Coast Guard’s commandant, Linda Fagan, apologized to cadets and the workforce, and acknowledged that the Coast Guard needed to be more transparent to service members, Congress and the public about such matters.

 

“Trust and respect thrive in transparency but are shattered by silence,” she wrote.

 

But under her watch, the Coast Guard continued to keep the report hidden from the public even though she had been asked to release it long before the Fouled Anchor controversy unfolded this summer. And although the Culture of Respect study is more than eight years old, more than a dozen current and recent Coast Guard employees and academy cadets told CNN many of the problems that were identified continue to plague the agency.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[EmirOfShmo]

 

[Cooked Crack]

Quote

When conservative icon Matt Schlapp announced Tuesday that the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit against him was dropped, he and his allies were quick to note that the ordeal ended without him or the American Conservative Union—the right-wing organization he runs—paying his accuser a single dollar. 

 

But what Schlapp didn’t disclose was that the Republican operative who sued him was, in fact, paid to drop the lawsuit, according to two people with knowledge of the payout. It was just that the money came from ACU’s insurance company, these two people told The Daily Beast.

Quote

Hours after the news broke on Tuesday, these sources said, Huffman’s counsel notified Schlapp’s legal team that some of Schlapp’s personal statements and social media posts celebrating the lawsuit’s resolution appeared to be in breach of the agreement’s nondisparagement clause. Those posts have since been taken down, including one where Schlapp, citing a Washington Examiner report on his personal Twitter account, wrote that he had been “cleared” of wrongdoing and that Huffman had “apologized.” 

 

The new allegations suggest that the legal battle—an increasingly contentious dispute that played out under intense media scrutiny for more than a year—might be heating back up almost as soon as it ended.