The Texas House of Representatives will vote Tuesday on whether to expel Republican state Rep. Bryan Slaton after an investigation found he engaged in sexual misconduct with a 19-year-old aide.
The House Committee of General Inquiry on Saturday released an 18-page report report detailing his investigation into Slaton’s conduct. He found that he violated House rules by engaging in inappropriate conduct in the workplace, specifically sexual harassment and retaliation. The five-person committee unanimously recommended his expulsion.
«Slaton’s misconduct is grave and serious,» the committee’s report said. «He took advantage of his position to engage in sexual conduct after undergoing training in which he had been warned that such conduct constituted harassment due to an imbalance of power.»
Slaton, 45, is a conservative representative in the chamber. Last year, he called for a ban on drag performances in the presence of minors, citing the need to protect children from «perverted adults.»
Slaton and Patrick Short, his attorney, did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment. Last month, Short called the accusations against Slaton, which came from three female employees who were between the ages of 19 and 21, «outrageous» and «untrue.»
Slaton’s attorneys sought to have the claims dismissed, arguing that his actions occurred at his Austin residence, not at the workplace. But the committee, citing a state court ruling, said its job in investigating the allegations was to «ask whether there are sufficient facts to infer a link between the sexual conduct and the work environment,» which the panel concluded was.
According to the report, Slaton had a sexual relationship with a legislative aide whom he had primary responsibility for overseeing. He invited her to her apartment late at night on March 31 and served her various alcoholic beverages, the committee found. The assistant later testified that she drank «a lot of alcohol» and felt «really dizzy» while she was in Slaton’s apartment. Sometime on the morning of April 1, the two had sex, and the assistant obtained Plan B to prevent pregnancy later that morning.
The report found that the attendant was unable to give effective consent or indicate whether or not the sex was welcome. The committee did not address the question of whether Slaton committed sexual assault, saying it did not have «sufficient data» to conduct the analysis.
“’At the time, obviously, I had too many drinks. Kind of hard to think about when you’re intoxicated. But now that I look back on it, it was definitely an inappropriate situation,'» the aide said according to the report.
The committee found that Slaton then engaged in harassment and retaliation to prevent employees from speaking out about his conduct. The aide testified that Slaton showed her an anonymous «threatening» email from someone who claimed to know she had slept with a staff member. She said she became «really afraid» of losing her job. She said that Slaton told her that “everything would be fine. All involved must remain silent,” according to the report.
The committee also discovered that a fellow representative had called Slaton to ask if he had had a sexual relationship with a staff member, which Slaton confirmed. The representative said that the next day he told Slaton to resign, at which point Slaton asked if the phone call could stay «between us.»
Slaton has resisted calls to resign his position and has not regretted his conduct, the committee said.
«It is the unanimous recommendation of the Committee that, considering the factors listed above, the only appropriate discipline in this matter is expulsion,» the report read.