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Brad Shannon maintains this blog. He is political editor at The Olympian and can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@theolympian.com.
Reports examine sex-harassment claim vs. DNR's Sutherland
Details are again in The Olympian today about a 3-year-old incident of unwanted touching and comments with sexual overtones from state Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland to a former young employee.
She felt uncomfortable, complained and later quit the agency, documents from an internal investigation by the Department of Natural Resources show. Political opponents of Sutherland circulated copies of those documents to several news organizations earlier this year.
The Horsesass.org web site published a report Tuesday that cited the documents and investigation into the incident in 2005. No punishment appears to have been levied and no legal claims filed against the agency.
The Seattle Times followed Wednesday with a story that included an interview with Sutherland earlier this year. Sutherland specifically denied his actions were lewd but acknowledged they were out of line with department policy and said it was the first time he’d ever received a harassment complaint.
The Times piece says, in part:
During a workplace meeting in 2005, Sutherland touched the woman's back and waist and made suggestive comments that made her uncomfortable, according to written accounts from the woman and a witness.
After an internal investigation, Sutherland met with the woman at her request and apologized to her. He agreed that he had violated departmental policy on appropriate behavior, according to the documents.
Sutherland has maintained that his contact with the woman was simply meant to be a friendly gesture. And, in an unpublished interview in April with a Seattle Times reporter, Sutherland specifically disputed that his remarks had been lewd.
The newspaper also found no record of claims against Sutherland in his capacity as Tacoma mayor or Pierce County executive.
Sutherland’s Democratic opponent Peter Goldmark only told the Times the charges were “really disturbing.” Goldmark has been critical of Sutherland’s handling of logging regulation, including uplands in the Chehalis River drainage that flooded badly last December.
Sutherland’s campaign spokesman suggested the document release was a sign of desperation by opponents, the Times said. We asked DNR spokesmen for a comment yesterday but had trouble connecting to see what comment they might have.
The state Democratic Party jumped on the blog report about the young woman Tuesday and spokesman Kelly Steele issued this statement, in part:
These documents speak for themselves, and the facts as presented strongly suggest Republican Doug Sutherland has compromised the public trust, and owes Washingtonians an explanation for his abhorrent behavior. …For decades, zero tolerance has been the norm in Washington state when it comes to sexual harassment, and a 72 year-old man who has spent decades in state and county government should be held to the highest standards of ethical conduct – in this case, he’s failed miserably.
Here’s a link to the redacted DNR documents that do not identify the victim. (Note: The index of contents was created by sources that shared the documents with media outlets and bloggers.) The young woman filed a complaint against Sutherland at the time of the unwanted attention but, according to the Times, did not respond to interview requests.
UPDATED at 1:57 p.m. to note source of index in documents.
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