HOUSE SPEAKER TOSSES COMPLAINT OF HARASSMENT
Questions linger about state house speaker’s decision about fellow dem
Colorado House Speaker Crisanta Duran has dismissed a sexual harassment complaint against a Democratic colleague with little explanation, a move that is prompting the accuser’s attorney to question whether the incident “is being swept under the rug without any accountability.”
Thomas Cavaness, a Democratic activist, filed a formal complaint alleging that state Rep. Paul Rosenthal, D-Denver, groped him and made unwanted advances at a 2012 campaign event when he was running for the state House.
In an exclusive interview with The Denver Post in November, Cavaness described how Rosenthal grabbed his inner thigh near his crotch and tried to kiss him at the event. Rosenthal — who, like Cavaness, is gay — called the allegations “baseless and false.”
Duran hired an outside human resources consultant from Employers Council to investigate the complaint but decided Friday that the General Assembly’s sexual harassment policy did not apply to the situation, according to internal documents reviewed by The Post.
In a conference call, Duran told Cavaness and his attorney, Alan Kennedy-Shaffer, that she dismissed the complaint because it fell outside the scope of the policy, given that Rosenthal was not a lawmaker at the time of the incident.
She declined to explain how she came to her decision, they said, and documents from the investigation offered no further clues. But Duran made clear on the call that the termination of the investigation was not a determination about Rosenthal’s innocence or guilt, Kennedy-Shaffer said.
Through a spokesman, Duran declined to comment Wednesday because the rules prohibit her from discussing investigations. Rosenthal and his attorney, Harvey Steinberg, also did not return messages seeking comment. The decision came days before the legislature is scheduled to convene for the 2018 session.
Duran sent the complaint Nov. 17 to the outside investigator, Michele Sturgell, and asked her to determine if the complaint amounted to a violation under the policy, documents show. Cavaness, now 30, met with the investigator Dec. 4. It’s not clear whether Rosenthal was ever interviewed. The documents provided to Cavaness after the investigation do not reflect that he was ever contacted about the details of the complaint.
Given the outcome and the remaining questions, Kennedy-Shaffer said, “there is still a total lack of transparency in the process of handling sexual harass--
complaints against legislators, and it’s unclear whether there will be any accountability for the sexual harassment of my client and others like him.”
The criticism toward Duran, a Denver Democrat, adds to questions about how she is handling two other sexual harassment complaints against state Rep. Steve Lebsock, a Thornton Democrat who is running for state treasurer. Duran appointed Lebsock as a committee chairman despite knowing about accusations from a fellow law maker, Rep. Faith Winter, that involved an incident in May 2016.
In conjunction with Senate President Kevin Gran- tham, R-Cañon City, Duran commissioned a broad review of the legislature’s policy toward sexual harassment, which a Post investigation found often tolerates bad behavior with few repercussions.
In an interview, Cavaness said he came forward as part of the #MeToo movement and he said his experience proved the process is broken. “It is as convoluted and vague as I originally thought it would be — maybe more so,” he said.
“I was hoping for some sort of resolution through this process. That’s why I filed a complaint, and that’s why I went to the media,” he continued. “Here I am having really exposed sensitive information about myself (to the outside investigator), and there is no resolution. That is a really troument bling feeling. I understand why more women and more victims don’t come forward, because they are going to put everything out there and get no resolution.”
Moreover, Cavaness said, he feels his complaint was treated as an isolated incident, despite a Post report about how the speaker’s office quietly handled another complaint about Rosenthal’s behavior during the 2017 legislative session.
In that situation, a former legislative policy aide alleged Rosenthal used his office to pursue a romantic relationship with her brother. Rosenthal, a teacher, allegedly told the aide that he may be able to help her brother professionally as he sought a meeting. She took her complaint to Duran’s office, but it never rose to the level of an investigation.
In the end, the former aide was told Rosenthal received materials reminding him of the workplace and sexual harassment policy. Rosenthal declined to comment on the incident.
Cavaness said his experience, and the more recent complaint, suggest “that this was a systemic pattern of behavior for Paul Rosenthal.”
He pointed to investigations at the congressional level into behavior of lawmakers before they took office as a model Colorado should follow. “When you are an elected official, it’s not just what you do when you are an elected official; it’s what happened before and while (you are a lawmaker),” he said. “You are a leader and have power and authority and should be held above reproach.”