Democratic Party calls for GOP legislators to resign after report on sealed deposition
The Kentucky Democratic Party called on Republican state Reps. Jeff Hoover and Michael Meredith to resign Wednesday following a report that a former staffer testified in a sealed deposition that Hoover sexually assaulted her and that Meredith made a vulgar statement to her.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education said Wednesday that Brad Montell, director of government relations for the department and a former Republican state representative from Shelbyville, is no longer with the department.
Montell is one of several current or former state lawmakers named in the deposition by a woman identified in lawsuits as “Jane Doe.”
Education department spokeswoman Jessica Fletcher said she could not discuss personnel matters. Montell, who began working for the department last September after serving as deputy secretary of the state Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and Kentucky Public Radio reported Tuesday night that Jane Doe said in a deposition given under oath last October that Hoover sexually assaulted her more than 50 times during her employment from 2015 to 2017.
According to the report by KyCIR, the woman said in the deposition that Hoover groped her in hallways or elevators and touched her between her legs under the table. “She described it as ‘nearly daily touching,’ and said she didn’t feel as though she could ask him to stop,” KyCIR reported.
Jane Doe also testified that Meredith made a vulgar statement to her during a legislative conference in Lexington in 2016, KyCIR reported. She said he approached her screaming. “Asking me why I wouldn’t f--k him, begging me to have sex with him,” according to KyCIR’s report.
“State Representatives Hoover and Meredith must resign immediately,” Kentucky Democratic Party spokeswoman Marisa McNee said in a statement Wednesday morning.
“Screaming at female staffers in public, demanding sexual favors and harassing women repeatedly cannot be tolerated,” McNee said. “The behavior described by the woman they targeted and other witnesses is horrifying. Republican leadership has ignored this for too long. It is time for them to take action.”
Sarah Van Wallaghen, executive director of the Kentucky Republican Party, said in response Wednesday afternoon that “sexual harassment has existed in Frankfort for decades; far pre-dating today’s Republican leadership. Sadly, it is only now being addressed in a real and meaningful way.”
Van Wallaghen said the problem is not partisan, but cultural and that House Speaker David Osborne and his team “have been working hard to resolve the issue by changing procedures to help report and prevent future problems.”
Neither Hoover nor Meredith returned calls seeking comment Wednesday. Hoover’s attorney, Leslie Vose of Lexington, was not immediately available for comment.
Hoover has said he exchanged inappropriate texts with the staffer but has denied any sexual contact.
Hoover, a Jamestown attorney, was elected House speaker in 2017 but stepped down from that position in January 2018, in the wake of sexual allegations by Jane Doe. Osborne, R-Prospect, replaced him as acting speaker and was elected speaker earlier this month.
Doe’s testimony detailed sexual harassment allegations against two other Republican lawmakers who signed a secret out-of-court settlement with Jane Doe over undisclosed allegations: Brian Linder of Dry Ridge and Jim DeCesare of Bowling Green. Linder and DeCesare did not seek re-election last November. Hoover and Meredith won re-election.
Jane Doe’s deposition was taken for lawsuits filed by two former staffers against the Legislative Research Commission. They allege they were retaliated against for reporting Jane Doe’s sexual harassment allegations. A judge temporarily sealed the transcript of her deposition.
Hoover’s attorneys have been granted the right to intervene in the staffers’ lawsuits and cross-examine jane Doe. His attorneys were not present at her deposition.
Jane Doe reportedly received $110,000 in the settlement with the four GOP lawmakers and was prevented from speaking publicly about the allegations. But she had to answer questions in the subpoena in her colleagues’ lawsuits.
She said in her deposition, according to KyCIR, that Hoover and she never had sex but he touched her breasts, buttocks and vagina without her consent. She also said they exchanged flirtatious texts and she once sent him a nude photo of herself and invited him to her apartment.
She said she never told Hoover that she didn’t want him to touch her but she occasionally tried to push him away or move his hands
Hoover confronted her about socializing with others, said Jane Doe, especially at a gathering of legislators and lobbyists she called the “Mass.” She described it as a place where legislators and lobbyists smoked cigars and drank bourbon after hours during legislative sessions.
Jane Doe said she was afraid to challenge or refuse Hoover out of concerns for her career.
Regarding Montell, Jane Doe said when she asked him once to donate to a political candidate, he replied that he “would only donate if I sat in his lap and signed the checks for him.”
Montell was not involved in the settlement.
In his first comments on the sexual harassment scandal on Nov. 4, 2017, Republican Gov. Matt Bevin called for the immediate resignation of every individual “who has settled a sexual harassment case, who is party to trying to hide this type of behavior.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2019 at 12:01 PM.