I want answers before calling for Sen. Jack Latvala’s scalp
I wasn’t a fan of Republican state Sen. Jack Latvala even before the allegations of sexual harassment against him.
During his 16 years in the Florida Legislature, Latvala has struck me as gruff, dismissive and full of himself. He’s an oldschool guy whose influence comes not only from knowing the history of the issues and the players, but from helping other politicians get elected — making money for his directmail marketing business along the way. I have appreciated that in a Republicandominated legislature, he’s been a moderating force on some bad education and environmental proposals. But then he goes and votes for things like that terrible charter school bill last year.
That said, I wonder if Latvala isn’t roadkill in the nasty business of Tallahassee politics.
What Latvala is alleged to have done makes my blood boil, but I’m bothered by the drumbeat of calls for him to resign before he has had a chance to defend himself. My sense of fair play says it’s wrong to #BelieveWomen without even considering the other side. And I fear today’s course correction for how women are treated in the workplace will lose its legs if we try, convict and sentence someone without a fair hearing.
I also remember, not so long ago, that Rolling Stone magazine had to retract its story, “A Rape on Campus,” because it failed to properly vet a woman’s false accusation of having been gang raped at the University of Virginia. So, too, did the court of public opinion rush to judge members of Duke University’s men’s lacrosse team after a woman falsely accused them of rape. And just last month, a woman falsely claimed to The Washington Post that Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore had impregnated her as a teenager.
I don’t know who’s telling the truth in the Latvala story. Unlike the news website Politico, I haven’t spoken with Rachel Perrin Rogers, a senior legislative aide who says in a sworn complaint that he harassed her on six occasions. I’ve read the coverage of her allegations, though, and communicated with her attorney. I’ve also spoken with Latvala.
I know Perrin Rogers from my days outside of journalism when we both worked for former Republican Sen. Paula Dockery. In the trenches together, we fought a state giveaway to CSX railroad and later worked on Dockery’s campaign for governor. While I haven’t seen her in years, I know Perrin Rogers to be smart, savvy, clever, hard-working, a good writer, generous, flirtatious and funny. I’ll always remember that day she left the office with a quiet quip about my “big hair.” Did she just say I had big hair?! I had to laugh. I still do.
It pains me to think that Perrin Rogers, 35, was inappropriately touched or groped or leered at or spoken to in ways no women should ever have to endure by someone in power. If Latvala, 66, really did reach for her vagina in a crowded elevator, then by God, throw the bum out. And if he really did reach into a woman’s blouse in front of her and two other women, expel him. And if he really did rub her leg in a bar while using his stout body to shield his behavior, well, you get where I’m going. Let his legacy be a shameful footnote in Florida history.
But Latvala says he didn’t do this, none of this, except perhaps letting “my mouth overload my good sense.”
“Have I said to somebody, ‘Hey, you’re looking hot today?’ or ‘Hey, you’ve lost weight. You look good.’ Yes, I’ve said it. I guess in today’s environment, there’s something wrong with that. I found out last week that saying ‘Oriental food’ is offensive. It’s Asian food now. I didn’t know that.”
I asked this old-school guy about his reputation for womanizing. “I was single for five years when I came back up here (for his second stint in the Senate) and I do like women,” he replied. “Now I’m happily married and she’s hung in here with me like a champ. I’m not perfect, but I didn’t grope anybody. I do not touch people against their will. Never have, never will. I think that’s heinous behavior. Sen. Jack Latvala
“The timing of it, some of these complaints go back four years. And they come out right after I get in the governor’s race, after I raise my first $1.4 million, after I get the big first endorsement. Is it a coincidence? I don’t believe it’s a coincidence.” He notes that Perrin Rogers’ husband is a political consultant who works for “some of the opposing people in some of these dark committees.”
Latvala made some persuasive points in our hour-long interview. He’s also passed a lie detector test commissioned by his legal team and signed a sworn affidavit to his innocence. His lawyers also have released an affidavit from a former coworker of Perrin Rogers that casts doubt on the claims. They’ve also released more than 200 text messages between Perrin Rogers and Latvala that “show a cordial and friendly relationship between the two and provide no clues of discord or distrust and include nothing of a sexually suggestive nature by Latvala,” the Miami Herald/ Tampa Bay Times reported.
For trying to defend himself, Latvala has taken near-daily criticism, most reported first by Politico. For one thing, he dropped clues to Perrin Rogers’ identity, after having agreed to keep her name and details of the complaint confidential, as a condition of seeing it. Also, his attorneys have aggressively sought out people he says will discredit the allegations. And they’ve secured affidavits from women attesting to his character, including that he has helped them advance in a male-dominated culture. “If I had to accept a reprimand because I defended myself too vigorously, I’d probably do it, but not for groping somebody, because I didn’t,” he told me.
I contacted Perrin Rogers’ attorney, too, but in an email exchange, Tiffany Cruz asked me to wait for the results of the probe by the Senate’s outside investigator, called a special master. She said fairness demands that Senate rules be followed and that there be consequences for violating confidentiality. “I have never disputed that he had the right to deny the allegations, but what he didn’t have the right to do is bastardize the investigative process using campaign style intimidation tactics.” She says his behavior has kept other women from coming forward.
Like everyone, I’m eager to see the report of the special master — retired First District Court of Appeal Judge Ronald Swanson.
But what happens in the meantime? With repeated calls for Latvala to resign, how do you create a fair process for the accuser — and the accused — in a sexual harassment case involving a candidate for governor?
And all of this is unfolding in a tense climate in Tallahassee. Senators are looking over their shoulders amid reports of private investigators, hidden cameras and rumors about who’s sleeping with whom.
And the stakes are high with a big election year upon us. Next November’s ballot includes races for the U.S. Senate, the Governor’s Mansion, the three other Cabinet seats, plus the Legislature.
What’s playing out should give everyone pause. Consider the timeline. Aug. 11: Latvala files papers to run for governor. He faces Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in the Republican primary. Plus, House Speaker Richard Corcoran is expected to run. All three hail from the Tampa Bay vicinity, which means they could pull each other’s supporters.
Oct. 5: The New York Times reports a decades-long history of sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, spurring a #MeToo women’s movement that’s opened people’s eyes and brought down powerful men in the media, politics and the entertainment industry.
Oct. 14: Latvala is endorsed by the 22,000-member state Fraternal Order of Police, a big catch. He also reports having raised $1.3 million for the quarter, a big haul.
Oct. 27: Sen. Jeff Clemens, incoming leader of the Florida Senate’s Democrats, resigns a day after Politico reports he had an affair with a lobbyist.
Oct. 30: Politico reports that a private investigator has been following Latvala for two years and photographed him kissing a lobbyist in a parking lot, once on the cheek and once on the lips. Both swear it was nothing romantic. Who hired the private eye has yet to be reported.
Latvala says it took him about 30 minutes to figure it out.
Oct. 30: Politico reports that incoming Senate Democratic leader Oscar Braynon of Miami Gardens found a surveillance camera in the hallway of a condominium building popular with lawmakers during session.
Nov. 2: Politico asks Latvala if the Florida Senate has a sexual harassment problem and reports that he made the answer all about him. The story doesn’t mention that Politico is reporting a story about an alleged sexual harassment claim against Latvala.
Nov. 3: Politico reports that six women say Latvala has inappropriately touched them or uttered demeaning remarks about their bodies. It says five came forward after Latvala’s remarks the previous day, and one — later revealed to be Perrin Rogers — earlier in the week. By mainstream media standards, a one-day turnaround is remarkably fast for vetting such allegations. Politico does not name the women. Corcoran almost immediately calls for Latvala to resign.
Nov. 6: Senate President Joe Negron suspends Latvala from his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, a spot that has helped him raise money for his gubernatorial campaign.
Nov. 6: In an editorial calling for an independent investigation, the Tampa Bay Times said it would not have published the story without identifying the sources. In the Sun Sentinel, I penned an editorial that said the accusers had a responsibility to come forward.
Don’t get me wrong. I feel for sexual harassment victims who demonstrate the courage to speak up. They’re changing our culture and the world. And rarely does a woman come out better for having done so.
But I also believe that if you’re going to make an allegation that could destroy someone’s career, you have to put your name to it. Otherwise, the potential for abuse is too great.
Latvala says Politico has become part of the story. “They’re not just reporting the story, they’re very aggressively pushing the story.”
I asked Politico about the vetting of the Nov. 3 story. Did the women reach out independently? Had they memorialized their allegations in any way? Had they told their stories to other people?
Among other things, Brad Dayspring, Politico’s vice president of communications, responded: “In our November 3, story, the six women accusing Mr. Latvala of inappropriate touching and harassment did not come forward as a group, nor to just one reporter; their stories involved independent reporting by three different POLITICO reporters. Five of the women came forward after Mr. Latvala publicly stated on November 2, that he has ‘never had any incident’ of someone accusing him of sexual harassment.”
“POLITICO’s coverage of allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and the dynamics of sex and politics in Tallahassee have been rigorously reported, rigorously edited, and is of high public interest. We are proud of that.”
Dayspring suggested my questions were motivated by a contentious relationship with Perrin Rogers during our working days together years ago. Gosh, that’s not my recollection at all. I don’t remember a single argument with her. And I still chuckle about that quip about my big hair.
I do wonder if before going to Politico, she first went to her boss, Sen. Wilton Simpson, who calls his top aide a “trusted and valued” member of his staff. Simpson is a powerful guy. He’s the Senate Majority Leader and in line to be Senate President in 2020. He could have put Latvala in his place while Perrin Rogers quietly pursued a harassment complaint.
So yes, I have questions. And until more is known, I will suspend judgment, as I believe others should. I know what it’s like to be on the south side of a sexual power imbalance in the workplace. But I also know that big-money politics is often dirty business and that sexual harassment allegations in a place like Tallahassee might be more complex than they appear on the surface.
Reach Sun Sentinel Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara at rohara@sun-sentinel.com or on Twitter @RosemaryOhara14.