Former Navy auditor accused of harassing women
WASHINGTON — A former Navy civilian auditor sexually harassed at least a dozen female employees for more than two decades as part of a pervasive pattern of misconduct and retaliation, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday.
The report by the Defense Department’s inspector general found that former Navy Auditor General Ronnie Booth engaged in “quid pro quo sexual propositions when interacting with female subordinates at the Naval Audit Service.”
It said he requested “sexual favors in exchange for career advancement, all under the guise of professional career ‘mentoring.’ ” Booth also was in a “sporadic long-term sexual relationship” with one subordinate in exchange for job promotions and other professional help, the report said.
The report said Booth’s interactions with female employees created a hostile and intimidating work environment, causing a number of the women to leave their jobs or ask for transfers. It also concluded that employees had an “unfavorable perception” of how complaints were handled, and so were discouraged from reporting his behavior.
Booth resigned in September 2019, shortly after the probe into his behavior began. During his interviews, he denied sexually harassing female subordinates and said
“he had an open door policy for mentoring” and there was “no difference between how he mentored men and women,” the report said.
According to the report, when the inspector general informed Booth of its conclusions, he left a voicemail saying, “The comments that I gave during my interview, I stand by those. Again, I don’t know where these accusations are coming from as I stated in my comments.”
The inspector general didn’t substantiate allegations that the Navy’s former acting secretary, Thomas Modly, knew about sexual harassment accusations against Booth but promoted him anyway. It found that Modly relied on staff to alert him to any problems with Booth’s promotion and that he was told there were none.
The report noted that some employees complained about Booth’s behavior in anonymous comments in the 2018 job climate survey that workers fill out.
“We determined that Mr. Modly complied with DOD and Navy standards when he was informed of the sexual harassment allegations against Mr. Booth ,” the report said.
U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, Dcalif., and Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., have been pressing the Pentagon for action on the matter.
Speier called the report a “sickening and stunning indictment,” which is “all the more appalling because he was allowed to retire with a full pension.”