ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A Republican gubernatorial candidate in Alaska faces accusations he sexually harassed a former assistant whereas he was a borough mayor.
The lawsuit filed Friday accuses Charlie Pierce of “fixed undesirable bodily touching, sexual remarks, and sexual advances,” the Anchorage Every day Information reported.
The case didn’t present up in a web-based courtroom data system Saturday. The girl’s Anchorage-based legal professional, Caitlin Shortell, mentioned in an electronic mail to The Related Press it was filed within the Kenai Superior Courtroom, and she or he anticipated a decide to be assigned Monday.
“When an elected official abuses their energy and place to sexually harass public servants, they should be held accountable,” Shortell mentioned.
The AP doesn’t usually establish alleged victims in sexual harassment instances.
Pierce is one in all 4 candidates working for governor in Alaska, and all appeared at a discussion board Saturday morning in Anchorage.
“I’ve no feedback on future litigation,” Pierce instructed the AP following the controversy.
He mentioned he additionally had no plans to finish his marketing campaign just some weeks earlier than the Nov. 8 election. “I’ll be within the race,” he mentioned.
The lawsuit additionally names the Kenai Peninsula Borough south of Anchorage as a defendant within the case, claiming the native authorities failed to guard the girl. She additionally claims the borough supplied no strategy to report harassment or discrimination with out worry of reprisal.
An electronic mail looking for remark was despatched to the borough’s legal professional, Sean Kelley.
In line with the lawsuit, the girl was Pierce’s assistant for about 18 months, till June 2022.
Pierce introduced in August he would resign in September to concentrate on his marketing campaign for governor. The borough meeting later launched an announcement stating Pierce was requested to contemplate voluntarily resigning after an worker made what had been deemed to be credible claims of harassment in opposition to him.
Within the lawsuit, she claims Pierce touched her breast, made sexual remarks, falsely imprisoned her in his personal workplace, kissed her neck and face, requested questions on her intercourse life and made undesirable and unsolicited embraces and massages.
The borough has paid two different former staff a mixed $267,000 in settlements for separate complaints in opposition to Pierce, the Every day Information reported.
In a single, the borough paid former human sources director Sandra “Stormy” Brown $150,000 in a settlement after she claimed in a lawsuit that Pierce fired her after she instructed him she had been identified with terminal breast most cancers. She claimed gender discrimination, incapacity discrimination and making a hostile work surroundings.
The borough additionally paid $117,000 to settle a grievance from a subsequent human sources director if the worker agreed he wouldn’t make “additional allegations of ‘unlawful acts’ by Mayor Pierce” and rescind his allegations of bullying, the Anchorage newspaper reported.