Harass vics reveal pain
ALBANY — Victims of sexual harassment broke a decadeslong silence in the state’s capital Wednesday, publicly sharing personal accounts of abuse and calling on elected officials to address the issue.
A group of women, empowered in the age of the MeToo movement, called for change as they offered accounts of a problem that has plagued New York politics for years.
“It is up to you to institute new reforms where laws have failed us in the past and continue to fail us today,” Leah Herbert, a co-founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group, told lawmakers.
Herbert, her voice wavering at times, spoke about the harassment she and other staffers faced while working for the late Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who was forced from the chamber in 2013.
“After six years of silence, I speak out now because I have to,” Herbert said.
Her pain was echoed by former Lopez aide Chloe Rivera.
“I was never in a position where I felt like I could turn down his invitations for latenight meetings and drinks,” Rivera said, noting the barrage of inappropriate comments and sexual advances Lopez made.
Elizabeth Crothers, who says she was raped in 2001 by Michael Boxley, the former counsel to disgraced Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, talked about the lingering pain and personal tolls of her trauma and the retaliation she faced from powerful figures in the Legislature at the time.
“In my own home family and friends do not enter a room without warning,” she said as some lawmakers wiped away tears.
Eight members of the Assembly have faced sanctions or resigned since 2006 following claims of sexual harassment or improper fraternization.
Legislators also used the lengthy, landmark session — the first of its kind in nearly three decades — to question administrators and experts about how to help victims feel comfortable coming forward about abuse, in Albany and elsewhere.
Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon, who said during her testimony she has “also been a target,” faced tough questions about making sure employers comply with current laws.
The hearing was prompted by calls from the Sexual Harassment Working Group, made up of a collective of seven former New York State legislative workers, and a Democratic-controlled Assembly stocked with a new class of freshman female lawmakers.
Sen. Alessandra Biaggi said victim accounts will help lawmakers craft tougher antiharassment policies for both the public and private sector.