In a lawsuit filed Friday, a former government assistant to Alaska gubernatorial candidate Charlie Pierce mentioned Pierce sexually harassed her when he was Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor.
The criticism, filed in state courtroom by Kenai resident Pamela Wastell, accuses Pierce of “fixed undesirable bodily touching, sexual remarks, and sexual advances” and says the borough authorities failed to guard her. The 19-page submitting names Pierce and the borough as defendants, and claims the borough supplied no option to report harassment or discrimination with out worry of reprisal.
Wastell labored as an government assistant to Pierce together with in 2021 and the primary six months of 2022, in line with the lawsuit.
Pierce is certainly one of 4 candidates for governor, and certainly one of two Republicans, to advance to the Nov. 8 normal election underneath Alaska’s new voting system. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has urged voters to rank the man Republican second on ballots within the state’s new ranked alternative voting system.
Pierce had one yr left in his time period as borough mayor when he introduced his resignation on Aug. 26. He mentioned on the time that he was leaving the job to give attention to campaigning for governor.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough Meeting later revealed that Pierce had been the topic of a “credible” harassment criticism made in July, and had been requested to think about resigning. However the id of the worker who made the criticism and the small print of the alleged harassment weren’t made public till the lawsuit Friday.
Pierce didn’t reply to emailed questions in regards to the lawsuit and Wastell’s accusations, and later referred inquiries to his legal professional. Pierce’s legal professional mentioned he couldn’t remark till he had had time to evaluate the criticism.
Earlier within the week, Pierce instructed the Day by day Information he couldn’t speak about his resignation and the allegations of harassment in opposition to him.
“You realize, I’m not at liberty to debate that,” he mentioned. “I’m actually not. It’s a personnel matter and we’re not allowed to speak about these issues.”
Kenai Peninsula Borough legal professional Sean Kelley wrote in an e mail Friday that he had not been served with the lawsuit but and due to this fact couldn’t remark.
In a state with the very best price of sexual assault within the nation, a number of Alaska political leaders have resigned in recent times following accusations of inappropriate interactions with ladies, sexual harassment or worse.
Former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott resigned in 2018 after a girl mentioned he propositioned her at an Anchorage resort. Former Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz resigned in 2020 after admitting to an “inappropriate messaging relationship” with a tv information reporter. Legal professional Normal Kevin Clarkson stop the identical yr after a Day by day Information and ProPublica investigation discovered he had despatched a whole lot of inappropriate textual content messages to a state worker. The legal professional normal appointee to switch Clarkson, Ed Sniffen, resigned six months later after a girl mentioned he had intercourse along with her when she was 17 and he was a coach for her highschool mock trial group. A grand jury in September indicted Sniffen, who has denied any wrongdoing, on fees of sexual abuse of a minor.
The lawsuit by Wastell says the Kenai Peninsula Borough failed to guard workers from a sample of harassment.
“When an elected official abuses their energy and place to sexually harass public servants, they should be held accountable,” Wastell’s legal professional mentioned in an e mail.
It marks a minimum of the third time the borough has confronted authorized charges or settlements over complaints involving Pierce. Two prior instances prompted the borough to pay former workers a mixed $267,000 in settlements.
These settlements didn’t contain sexual harassment, though Friday’s lawsuit means that if the brand new case goes to trial, extra borough workers could be known as to testify about alleged sexual harassment by Pierce.
“KPB knew or ought to have identified that Pierce was a sexual harasser and bully,” the lawsuit says. “Previous to Wastell’s constructive discharge, KPB, by Pierce, subjected a minimum of 4 different workers to discrimination, bullying, harassment, retaliation, and/or termination.”
Within the lawsuit, Wastell accuses Pierce of:
• Touching her breast.
• Sexual remarks.
• “False imprisonment in his non-public workplace.”
• Undesirable and unsolicited embraces and massages.
• Kissing her neck and face.
• Asking questions in regards to the particulars of her intercourse life.
• Telling her that solely he alone might hearth her inside the borough and that she wouldn’t need to say no to him.
After being largely absent from the marketing campaign path for the reason that August main, Pierce has been actively campaigning in current days, together with an look in a statewide televised debate Wednesday.
Wastell refused an interview request by her legal professional, Caitlin Shortell. Neither Shortell nor the Kenai Peninsula Borough legal professional would say how a lot the borough supplied Wastell in any proposed settlements.
Earlier complaints
Pierce is a former supervisor for Enstar Pure Fuel who served on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Meeting earlier than his election as mayor in 2017. (Wastell has labored for the borough since 2013, in line with the lawsuit.)
In 2019, the borough’s former human sources director, Sandra “Stormy” Brown, filed a lawsuit accusing the borough and Pierce of gender discrimination, incapacity discrimination and making a hostile work setting. Brown mentioned within the lawsuit that Pierce fired her after she instructed him she had been recognized with terminal breast most cancers.
By means of mediation, the borough agreed to pay Brown $150,000 to settle the case. Of that quantity, $15,000 was paid for misplaced wages and $135,000 was paid for “emotional misery damages,” in line with mediation information obtained by a public information request.
The borough agreed to pay $117,000 to settle a Dec. 15, 2021, criticism from a subsequent human sources director. In alternate, the worker agreed he wouldn’t “make any additional allegations of ‘unlawful acts’ by Mayor Pierce” and would “withdraw and rescind any allegations of bullying.”
Wastell, who by then was working instantly for Mayor Pierce, served because the notary for the settlement.
Requires Pierce to drop out of race
Pierce entered the governor’s race the next month. In line with the lawsuit, he elevated the depth and frequency of sexual harassment all through the primary half of 2022.
The criticism alleges that two different feminine borough workers have been sexually harassed, together with one who reported harassment to the borough legal professional, Kelley.
Wastell made a criticism in opposition to Pierce on July 11. The borough positioned her on paid administrative go away and employed a regulation agency to look into the allegations. On Sept. 1, the fifth-place finisher within the main election, Rep. Christopher Kurka, R-Wasilla, known as on Pierce to drop out of the race and permit him to take his place on the poll.
“If Charlie doesn’t intend to run a critical marketing campaign, he nonetheless has time to honor the needs of his supporters who desire a conservative various to Dunleavy,” Kurka mentioned in an announcement emailed by his marketing campaign.
The deadline to withdraw handed, and Pierce stayed within the race and on the poll.
The lawsuit says that the borough has urged Wastell — who has been on paid administrative go away since making a report of sexual harassment in July — to return to work. On Wednesday, Wastell obtained a discover telling her that if she didn’t quickly return, the borough would “sever the employment relationship resulting from a refusal to work.”
Shortell mentioned that returning to the workplace wasn’t an possibility.
“The borough has not made the office secure,” she mentioned. “They haven’t applied processes that might make workers, together with Ms. Wastell, secure sooner or later from retaliation, bullying and different harassment.”
Day by day Information reporter Iris Samuels contributed to this text.
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