Rep. Kelsey Files Ethics Complaint Against Speaker
Posted on January 21, 2009 at 3:35 pmThe only legislator to travel to Carter County and actively campaign for Williams’ primary opponent continues the campaign:
MEMPHIS - Representative Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) filed an Ethics Complaint today against Speaker of the House Kent Williams for Williams’s acts of sexual harassment and for making a false statement to the public regarding the allegations. Rep. Kelsey filed the Complaint directly with Speaker Williams this afternoon via e-mail.
It was revealed yesterday that on March 27, 2007, Williams solicited a sexual act from Rep. Susan Lynn in the legislative parking garage, telling her, “I will give a week’s pay just to see you naked.”
A memo written by House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower chronicles that Williams admitted the charge of sexual harassment, apologized to Rep. Lynn, and was reprimanded by Leader Mumpower.
Yesterday, Speaker Williams issued a public statement, saying, “I have never sexually harassed anyone nor have I been reprimanded for any such behavior.”
“Speaker Williams’s actions of sexual harassment were bad enough to begin with. Denying that the events ever occurred, in effect calling Rep. Lynn a liar, is like spitting in the face of his victim,” said Rep. Kelsey from his law office in Memphis.
Rep. Kelsey continued, “Speaker Williams issued a false statement with the intent to deceive the public. This type of dishonesty to the people of Tennessee is totally unacceptable from the leader of the House of Representatives.”
Rep. Kelsey has been a leader on issues of ethics throughout his four-year tenure in the House of Representatives. He was the first member of the General Assembly to call for public hearings on whether indicted legislators should keep their seats in the wake of the Tennessee Waltz scandal, and he introduced thirty-three amendments to strengthen the ethics bill in the special session on ethics in 2006. He has been a vocal proponent of closing the loophole in the lobbyist gift ban for legislative receptions.
See the full text of the ethics complaint at this link
SEE ALSO: Clint Brewer
Comments
6 Responses to “Rep. Kelsey Files Ethics Complaint Against Speaker”
How does Kelsey have standing to bring an ethics complaint if Williams committed the sexual harassment on Lynn?
Unless Kelsey is wanting to get Williams for lying?
(Filing an ethics complaint because a politician lied?)
Good Job Jimmy!!!
You picked a real good one here.
[i]t was revealed yesterday that on March 27, 2007, Williams solicited a sexual act from Rep. Susan Lynn
Since when is a peep show a sexual act?
So, this allegedly happened in march of ‘07, when Williams was a “good, loyal republican”. But the ethics complaint doesn’t get filed until AFTER Williams in elected Speaker of the House by the Dems. Wow. How i love these good ole ethics of pissed of Republicans.
I don’t know if your description of “only legislator to actively campaign for Kent Williams primary opponent” is accurate. Didn’t you forget Stacey Campfield?
I think it is strange that these documents only come up after Jason Mumpower gets beat. Apparantly it is ok to sexually harrass someone and be a member of the house, but not the speaker? Serious I thought Republicans were better than this. When will the insanity stop. I don’t guess this was an issue worth taking up in 2007? Now two years later with a budget crisis we need to address it. That is if it ever happened.