Yee ex-aide named in sex misconduct probe
SACRAMENTO — A wellknown Sacramento lobbyist and former chief of staff to a disgraced San Francisco state senator exposed himself and engaged in unwanted touching and sexual conversations with a Senate staffer in 2013 and 2014, according to investigative findings released Thursday.
An independent law firm hired by the Senate substantiated the sexual misconduct allegations against Adam Keigwin by a woman who worked for him in the Senate. Keigwin was a longtime staffer to Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, who was arrested in 2014 and sentenced in 2016 in a corruption case that involved gun trafficking.
The Senate Rules Committee, which acts as a human resources arm of the legislative body, barred Keigwin from future Senate employment and warned that “any further similar misconduct with any Senate employee” could result in him being barred from Senate offices and hearing rooms in the Capitol.
The law firm used the standard of a preponderance of evidence to reach its conclusions. Keigwin, managing director of the Sacramento lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs, denied the accusations.
“These allegations are absolutely untrue; they are contrary to and against everything I stand for and have spent my entire career fighting for; and I will vigorously defend myself against them,” Keigwin said in a statement.
The investigation concluded that Keigwin had engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct while he worked in the Senate, including unwanted touching, exposing himself and sexually explicit talk.
“The evidence supported a finding that this behavior occurred at social events that involved drinking when Keigwin had become inebriated,” according to the investigation findings. “That was not intended to excuse the behavior, bur rather put it in context.”
The woman was not identified in the report. Investigators wrote that she had asked that her complaint be kept confidential, and that she had later decided she did not want to participate in the investigation.
Investigators continued their work, interviewing nine people. The woman participated in an initial interview before declining to participate.
Investigators wrote that Keigwin had exposed himself on “one or two occasions, during the time that they worked for the Senate” at social events.
The investigation was conducted by the Berkeley law offices of Amy Oppenheimer, who was hired by the Senate last year following reports of widespread sexual harassment in the state Capitol. For decades, the Legislature kept investigations into sexual misconduct against lawmakers and employees private, but in recent months it decided to release substantiated complaints against lawmakers and highranking employees.
The #MeToo movement that started with women in Hollywood moved to the state Capitol in October when hundreds of women signed on to a letter calling out pervasive sexual harassment in Sacramento politics.