The sexual harassment allegations against Florida state Sen. Jack Latvala may have reached the level of sexual assault, a retired judge concluded in a Special Master's report delivered to the legislature on Tuesday, the Miami Herald reports.
Retired Judge Ronald V. Swanson also referred the case to law enforcement for criminal investigation.
“The Special Master recommends these allegations be immediately referred to law enforcement for further investigation. An internal investigation pursuant to Senate Rules, referral to the Florida Commission on Ethics, and/or some other appropriate mechanism of investigation of the alleged ethics violations is also recommended,” Swanson concluded.
A new accuser who has known Latvala for two decades emerged during the course of the Special Master investigation.
“Ms. [redacted] testified that between 2015 and 2017, Senator Latvala touched and groped her in an unwelcome manner every time she went to his office, and that she believed tolerating such behavior was part of her job as a lobbyist,” the report said. “If she went to his office in the Capitol and the door closed, she pretty much [was] always touched.”
She testified Latvala “placed his hands up her dress, touched the outside of her underwear at her vaginal area, her buttocks, and her breast.”
The woman claimed a clear quid pro quo was stated by the powerful senator, who chaired the Budge Committee until the allegations surfaced.
She testified Latvala “expressly intimated to her on multiple occasions, that if she engaged in sexual acts or allowed him to touch her body in a sexual manner he would support particular legislative items for which she was lobbying.”
“I felt it was something he felt entitled to,” she noted, while supplying text messages from Latvala along with her testimony.
She also testified she “finally left her work as a lobbyist [i]n large part so [she] would never have to owe [Senator Latvala] anything.”
The allegations against Sen. Latvala have been described as an open secret.
“He’s a hound. I mean, everyone in Tallahassee knows that Jack Latvala is an absolute hound,” Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said last month. “Jack believes that his power as a legislator gives him some special power with women. And, there are times when it’s clearly unrequited.”
Watch Sen. Jack Latvala speak to reporters one day before the release of the 33-page, bombshell report by the Special Master:
