Rep. Kelsey Files Ethics Complaint Against Speaker

By Kleinheider Posted on January 21, 2009 at 3:35 pm

The 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

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Tags: Brian Kelsey, Kent Williams, sexual Harrasment, Speaker election, Stuntbaby of Germantown  

Nashville Consulting Firm Linked To Sexual Harrassment Settlement

By Kleinheider Posted on October 13, 2008 at 11:19 am

The firm of Fletcher, Rowley, Chao, Riddle, Inc has been named in a report by ABC chronicling a sexual harassment settlement involving a a sitting congressman.

Congressman Tim Mahoney of Florida, the man who succeeded disgraced Rep. Mark Foley, has allegedly made a $121,000 payment to a former mistress who worked on his staff and was threatening to sue him. The sttlement also reportedly includes promise of alternate employment.

The agreement between the Congressman and Allen, reportedly promises her a job for two years at Fletcher Rowley Chao Riddle or another company, beginning January 2009. Fletcher Rowley, a Nashville-based political consulting firm that offers “crisis management and creative strategy,” lists Mahoney’s 2006 election victory as one of its “success stories,” according to its website.

The firm’s CEO, Bill Fletcher, strongly denied any knowledge of the settlement or any promise of employment to Allen. “I know nothing of the like,” he told ABC News. “There is no such agreement. There is no arrangement,” Fletcher said.

According to Fletcher, all funds paid to his company by the Mahoney for Congress campaign were properly accounted for. “I’ve made no payments to any third party,” he said.

According to people briefed on the settlement Allen was promised at least $50,000 a year or other employment if the Fletcher Rowley job fell through.

Friends of Allen say she was required to sign a back-dated letter of resignation to the campaign chairman, Charles Halloran, describing her departure as “amicable” and “nothing to do with you, the Congressman, the campaign, or any conduct by anyone associated with your congressional office of campaign.”

A Mahoney campaign spokesman said, “Patricia Allen resigned of her own accord, in good standing.”

The spokesman said there “was no sexual harassment suit filed against Congressman Mahoney.”

Allen, reached at her home in Hobe Sound, said she was “unable” to comment publicly.

Her friends say her settlement agreement with Mahoney prohibits her from making “negative comments” about him.

UPDATE: Fletcher severs his relationship with the Congressman.

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Braisted.
Jeff Woods

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Tags: Bill Fletcher, Chao, Fletcher, inc., Mark Foley, Riddle, Rowley, sexual Harrasment, Tim Mahoney