Sen. Latvala says he will resign after allegations
TALLAHASSEE – Jack Latvala, a powerful senator and Republican candidate for governor, announced Wednesday he is resigning Wednesday after two reports of allegations he sexually harassed and made demeaning and vulgar comments to female staffers and lobbyists.
Latvala, 66, sent a letter to Senate President Joe Negron continuing to deny any wrongdoing and condemning the dual investigations into his conduct.
“I have had enough,” Latvala wrote. “If this is the process our party and Senate leadership desires, then I have no interest in continuing to serve with you.”
The resignation is effective at midnight Jan. 5. He made no mention of the fate of his candidacy for governor.
Latvala’s departure comes after two Senate reports investigating misconduct allegations were made public, setting up a review by fellow senators that could have resulted in his expulsion.
The first report published Tuesday found probable cause that he groped and verbally abused a Senate staffer and offered to trade his support for legislation for sexual favors with a lobbyist. Such a “quid pro quo” exchange could spur criminal charges, the report concluded.
Despite Latvala’s resignation, inquiries into his conduct could be just beginning.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed the agency was forwarded material from the report and was conducting a “preliminary review.”
A second report released Wednesday included accusations from anonymous female staffers and lobbyists who recounted instances of Latvala harassing him.
The investigations were triggered by a Politico report in November detailing sexual misconduct allegations against the Clearwater senator by six anonymous women.
One of the women, Rachel Perrin Rogers, an aide to Senate GOP Leader Wilton Simpson of Trilby, later came forward to lodge a complaint with the Senate Rules committee.
That committee’s report was released Tuesday, finding probable cause in four of the five allegations in Rogers’ complaint, which detailed accounts of verbal and physical harassment and groping dating back to 2013.
Negron also ordered an independent investigation into the allegations in the Politico story, which was conducted by Gail Golman Holtzman, a Tampa-based lawyer, and generated Wednesday’s report.
Holtzman and her investigators said they were unable to interview the women in the Politico story but talked to 54 other witnesses. While some expressed support for Latvala as professional and respectful, albeit “gruff,” others recalled several occasions of inappropriate and loutish behavior.
“One witness reported that when she met with Senator Latvala to conduct business, he closed the door, gave her a big hug, grabbed her buttocks, kissed her mouth, and put his hand in the top of her dress, grunted in her ear and made a sexual comment,” the report states. “She stated that she tried to stop his advances, but he wore her down.”
Another witness said Latvala “would ask, ‘What do I get?’ in certain verbal exchanges in connection with her work, but she perceived that the implication was a suggested
quid pro quo for sexual favors based on a steady pattern and constant ‘hitting on her.’ ”
Women who spoke to investigators stressed a general fear that Latvala, who was the Senate budget chairman in charge of writing an $83 billion spending plan before the allegations came to light, would punish them or their clients if they spoke out against him.
In his letter, Latvala said he helped women throughout his career but that his “political adversaries have latched onto this effort to rid our country of sexual harassment to try to rid the Florida Senate of me.”
Latvala did say he hadn’t “kept up with political correctness” in some of his comments.
Pressure had been mounting on Latvala to resign before the reports were completed, but those calls grew louder Wednesday, as GOP leaders called for him to leave office.
Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Miami, all urged Latvala to quit the Senate.
“I am appalled by the findings of the special master report,” Bondi said in a statement. “How can we trust Senator Latvala as a lawmaker to create the rules by which we live when he refuses to follow them?”