One of the Republican House leaders who voted to expel three Democrats over a gun violence protest was recently found guilty of sexually harassing at least one teenage legislative intern by a secret ethics investigation.
State Rep. Scotty Campbell, the vice chair of the House Republican caucus, suffered no consequences for making extremely vulgar comments and making inappropriate advances toward the 19-year-old intern, and a panel comprised of two Republicans and two Democrats concluded he had violated the policy against workplace discrimination and harassment, reported WTVF-TV.
"I had consensual, adult conversations with two adults off property," Campbell said, when asked for comment. "I think conversations are consensual once that is verbally agreed to. If I choose to talk to any intern in the future, it will be recorded."
A family member shared with the TV station an email from the victim, who declined to comment on the report, that provided a detailed account to officials at her university about her experiences with the GOP leader, who she said made sexually explicit comments about her and another intern he'd seen walking with her into the Capitol Towers apartment building.
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"[Campbell later] made comments about how ... he was in his apartment imagining that we were performing sexual acts on one another and how it drove him crazy knowing that was happening so close to him," the woman said. "I uncomfortably explained that that was not happening, and he insisted that he knew it was and asked me to tell him about it."
The woman explained the other intern was simply her friend, and Campbell, a former talk radio host, described how sexually attractive he found her, and he made other comments about being "very, very lonely" and asked questions she found inappropriate.
"He proceeded to ask how many men I've slept with," she told university officials. "I told him zero, and he insisted that I was lying and told me not to lie. He then proceeded to ask how many women I've slept with and said he bets girls go crazy over me."
Then he offered to give her cannabis gummies to see her tattoos and piercings, and then begged for "several hugs" when she declined.
"I was getting progressively more afraid and uncomfortable," she told university officials. "He then reached out his hand towards me and grabbed me around my neck. I recoiled and said I felt sick and immediately left. That was the last night I ever spoke with or saw him. I blocked his number after that."
Taxpayers paid an unspecified amount to protect the intern by moving her from an apartment building where the legislator also lived to a downtown Nashville hotel and shipped her furniture to another part of the state while she completes her internship, but Campbell denied the woman's allegations.
"That's not true," Campbell insisted, and the TV station reported that he quietly answered "yes" when asked if the woman was making up the claims.
However, the victim's email says she was told that Campbell had "admitted fully to his guilt," and Connie Ridley, director of legislative administration for the General Assembly, provided a memorandum from his personnel file to the TV station but said legislature policies prohibited her from sharing additional information.
"No information concerning a complaint, investigation, lawsuit or the implementation of corrective action will be released to anyone not directly involved in such a matter," Ridley said. "The Legislature will comply with the confidentiality provisions of the Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Policy."
