A Republican Nebraska lawmaker who stirred a firestorm of controversy by repeatedly name-checking a fellow senator whereas studying a graphic account of rape from a best-selling memoir on the ground of the Legislature is now underneath investigation for sexual harassment.
The investigation into state Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings by the Legislature’s Government Board was introduced Wednesday by Sen. Ray Aguilar, a fellow Republican and chairman of the board. Aguilar stated he filed the harassment criticism himself after witnessing Halloran’s remarks on the ground Monday evening.
“This formal investigation will likely be thorough and by the guide,” Aguilar learn from an announcement on the ground. “I can guarantee members of this physique, legislative workers and all Nebraskans that any and all allegations of office harassment will likely be correctly investigated and addressed as offered within the Government Board coverage. ”
“Greater than something, it is necessary that each one members of the Legislature and legislative workers really feel secure within the office,” Aguilar stated.
A panel of three lawmakers will likely be named to supervise the investigation and can rent an outdoor investigator to look into Halloran’s actions. A report will likely be made public inside 45 days, Aguilar stated.
Halloran stated legislative guidelines on harassment investigations forestall him from commenting on the probe, “aside from to notice I’ll defend myself.”
Throughout a debate on a invoice concentrating on obscenity in libraries, Halloran learn a graphic excerpt from the memoir “Fortunate” by Alice Sebold, which recounts Sebold’s expertise of sexual violence when she was 18, and invoked the identify “Sen. Cavanaugh” a number of instances, showing to reference Democratic state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, a feminine colleague.
Halloran later stated he was invoking the identify of Cavanaugh’s brother, Democratic Sen. John Cavanaugh, as a result of he needed to make sure that John Cavanaugh was taking note of his argument towards permitting college students to have entry to Sebold’s memoir. Halloran apologized the subsequent day for invoking the Cavanaugh identify, however stood by his studying of the graphic passage on the ground.
Machaela Cavanaugh, who was visibly shaken following Halloran’s studying, has stated she doubts Halloran’s declare that she was not the goal, as a result of Halloran had approached her a few hours earlier than the studying, as she was consuming dinner with one other lawmaker, and relayed the identical passage from Sebold’s memoir.
“You don’t know something about anybody else’s life, and I can let you know that ladies on this physique have been topic to sexual violence,” Machaela Cavanaugh responded instantly after Halloran’s studying on the ground. “I didn’t know you have been able to such cruelty!”
Halloran’s studying drew a direct backlash from each Democrats and Republicans within the formally nonpartisan Legislature. One of the vital vocal has been Republican Sen. Julie Slama, who has known as on Halloran to resign. Slama, who additionally serves on the physique’s Government Board, has publicly detailed her personal encounters with sexual harassment and assault, together with her account of being forcibly groped by former Republican candidate for Nebraska governor Charles Herbster at a fundraiser when she was 22. She has additionally acquired rape and dying threats whereas serving within the Legislature.
And these aren’t the one scandals involving males concentrating on girls within the Nebraska Legislature lately.
In 2017, state Sen. Invoice Kitner — a married Republican who had already been fined in 2015 for having cybersex with a woman utilizing his state-issued laptop computer — resigned after retweeting a remark that implied individuals at a girls’s march have been too unattractive to be sexually assaulted.
Then in 2022, Republican state Sen. Mike Groene abruptly stepped down and deserted his marketing campaign to be a College of Nebraska Regent after admitting that he took office pictures of a feminine subordinate — together with what she stated have been close-ups of physique components whereas she was clothed — with out her information or consent. After a number of girls lawmakers railed towards the dealing with of the criticism towards Groene, the Legislature final yr up to date its coverage on office harassment.