JCOPE steps in
Board to probe harassment allegations against senator’s former chief of staff.
The state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics will probe allegations that a former chief of staff for state Sen. Simcha Felder groped and sexually harassed a female lobbyist during a campaign fundraiser for Sen. George Amedore.
Two people briefed on the case said that JCOPE, which received a referral from the Legislative Ethics Commission to investigate the allegations, is waiting for the conclusion of a related investigation by the Albany County Sheriff’s Department.
The accusations were leveled in October against Rodney C. Powis, 48, an attorney from East Greenbush who works at a private law firm in Rensselaer County. Less than a week after the woman’s allegations were published in the Times Union, Powis checked into a 30-day alcohol treatment program, according to people familiar with his decision.
Payroll records indicate Powis left the Senate payroll at the end of October. A spokeswoman for Felder confirmed he is no longer employed in their office but declined to say whether he had been asked to resign.
Powis and his attorney, Karl J. Sleight of Albany, are scheduled to meet with sheriff’s investigators and officials from the Albany County district attorney’s office this week. Two people briefed on the meeting’s agenda said that Powis is expected to provide affidavits from people who attended the October fundraiser and claim they did not witness the abuse described by the alleged victim.
Sleight declined to comment.
The woman, who is in her mid-30s, said Powis harassed and groped her during an Oct. 11 fundraiser at the Guilderland residence of William F. Lia Jr., 49, a Capital Region businessman whose family owns the Lia Auto Group.
Powis was at the event as Felder’s representative; dozens of people paid a minimum of $250 to attend the catered fundraiser. The alleged encounter between Powis and the woman unfolded about 90 minutes after Amedore spoke to the gathering.
The woman’s identity is being withheld by the Times Union because she is an alleged victim of sexual abuse.
A Senate source familiar with the matter told the Times Union last month that Amedore notified the secretary of the Senate, Francis W. Patience, after learning of the allegations two days after the fundraiser.
Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat who has conferenced with Senate Republicans, issued a statement last month saying Powis had been placed on administrative leave, but would continue to receive his $119,000-a-year salary.
“These are serious allegations and were reported immediately,” Felder said in the statement. “We are following standard Senate procedure and he has been placed on administrative leave pending the
outcome of the investigation. I cannot comment any further at this time.”
A Senate investigation of the woman’s allegations was handled by a private law firm that concluded its work last month without interviewing Powis, who was unavailable due to his enrollment in the treatment program. Those findings, which are not made public under Senate rules, were referred to the Legislative Ethics Commission and then to JCOPE around the same time that Powis left the Senate payroll.
The Senate’s investigator, a private attorney, had re-interviewed the alleged victim last month and asked her whether the allegations were “politically motivated,” according to the woman. It’s unclear what prompted that line of questioning.
“I have a clearer understanding of why people don’t pursue these things,” the woman said Wednesday. “Ultimately, what this has done is put the onus on me . ... Am I not to be believed as a victim?”
The woman, who had agreed to an interview with the Times Union last month after being contacted by the newspaper, said that Powis began making inappropriate comments to her as she sat at a table with him and two other women.
The woman said Powis, who was sitting next to her, inquired about her marital status and allegedly made unsettling comments when he learned that she’s a single mother, and that a man she had been talking to at the event was not her husband.
“He told me I looked hot,” she said.
She said that Powis suggested she and another man at the party have sex that night, and that Powis subsequently groped her right breast before one of his hands slid down and touched her buttocks.
“Then he announced to the table, ‘I just grabbed her boob,’” she said. “I looked across the table to a woman who was with us and I mouthed the word ‘help.’”
That woman subsequently came to the alleged victim’s aid by whisking her away to get some food, she said.
Some of those who the woman said may have witnessed the encounter are acquaintances of Powis’. It’s unclear if those witnesses have provided the affidavits indicating they did not see any groping or sexual harassment.
The woman told police last month that another woman at the event was aware of what was unfolding, and retrieved the alleged victim’s purse from where Powis was seated and escorted her out of the event.