The Texas House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on whether to expel GOP Rep. Bryan Slaton after he was accused of sleeping with a 19-year-old aide, The Washington Post reported.
Slaton, 45, was accused of disorderly conduct, which included harassment, giving alcohol to someone underage and abusing his position. An investigation was launched in April after a 21-year-old legislative intern and two 19-year-old aides accused Slaton of sexual harassment and retaliation.
The House's general investigation committee released its report Saturday. It found that expulsion is “the only appropriate discipline in this matter," the Post reported.
The aides and intern said Slaton helped them get alcohol multiple times. In January, he gave the three women vouchers so they could get alcoholic beverages at a lobbying event.
One of the 19-year-old aides who worked in Slaton’s office told investigators that he went on to call her most evenings and told her she had “nice features." On March 31, Slaton invited that aide to his Austin condo along with three friends where she drank rum and coke until her vision was blurred and she felt “really dizzy," she said. She told the investigators she stayed at Slaton’s condo after her friends left.
The aide’s friends told investigators that the next morning she took the emergency contraceptive Plan B and was driven to her apartment by Slaton. She also told her friends that she’d had sex with him, the Post reported.
“The expulsion of a fellow member is a level of punishment we don’t take lightly,” Rep. Andrew Murr (R) said. “It is not meant to punish the member. Rather, it is intended to protect the integrity and dignity of this legislative body and to provide accountability to everyone that works and serves in this building.”
“Slaton’s misconduct is grave and serious,” the House committee members wrote in the report. “He took advantage of his position to engage in sexual conduct after completing training in which he had been advised that conduct of this type was harassment because of the power imbalance.”
Read the full story at The Washington Post.
