Latvala conduct might be criminal

Tallahassee

A Florida Senate investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Sen. Jack Latvala has been referred to law enforcement after a retired judge found that the Clearwater Republican may have committed both sexual harassment and a sexual assault against multiple women, including allegations of "quid pro quo" physical contact or sexual intimacy "in exchange for support of legislative initiatives."

The special master's report, delivered to the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday by retired Judge Ronald V. Swanson, concluded there is probable cause to launch an investigation and hearing by the Rules Committee to determine if Latvala is guilty of violating Senate conduct rules and should be sanctioned or removed from office.

In a stunning development, however, the special master also referred the case for criminal investigation, concluding "a witness other than Complainant, and seemingly confirmed in text messages" from Latvala "appear to violate ethics rules, and may violate laws prohibiting public corruption."

"The Special Master recommends these allegations be immediately referred to law enforcement for further investigation. An internal investigation pursuant to Senate Rules, referral to the Florida Commission on Ethics, and/or some other appropriate mechanism of investigation of the alleged ethics violations is also recommended," Swanson wrote in a 33-page report.

Grey Goose

and donuts

The report found probable cause for four of five specific allegations made by Rachel Perrin Rogers, the Senate legislative aide who came forward with the initial complaint against Latvala. It described a Senate in which alcohol is commonplace in legislative offices during the day, provided graphic detail of how Latvala allegedly groped and grabbed Perrin Rogers in an elevator, and how he allegedly arrived drunk from Grey Goose vodka in the Senate Majority Office on April 18.

The report also noted several incidents "memorably centered on donuts," a favorite food of Latvala's. In one incident, Perrin Rogers attempted to "calm him down" after he got angry one morning when the majority office had no donuts. Latvala responded, "I always appreciate you," Perrin Rogers testified, and then "briefly squeezed on my love handle section."

Latvala, 66, who was at the pinnacle of his power as Senate budget chairman until the allegations surfaced in November, testified before the special master and repeatedly denied ever hugging any woman in a manner that was intended to make them uncomfortable and refuted each of the Perrin Rogers' assertions. Five other women had made accusations anonymously in a story reported by Politico but were not part of the official complaint made to the Senate. Latvala stepped down as chair of the committee and vowed to fight the charges.

But the bombshell came at the end of the report, where a new accuser, now a Florida Senate employee, emerged. The unnamed woman testified that she has known Latvala since about 1995 and had a "close personal relationship" with him that was at times intimate.

She testified that when Latvala became engaged to his current wife, "she thought the sexual nature of her relationship with Senator Latvala would stop. It did not."

"Ms. [redacted] testified that between 2015 and 2017, Senator Latvala touched and groped her in an unwelcome manner every time she went to his office, and that she believed tolerating such behavior was part of her job as a lobbyist," the report said. "If she went to his office in the Capitol and the door closed, she pretty much [was] always touched."

She recalled how Latvala "placed his hands up her dress, touched the outside of her underwear at her vaginal area, her buttocks, and her breast."

Quid pro quo?

She testified that he "expressly intimated to her on multiple occasions, that if she engaged in sexual acts or allowed him to touch her body in a sexual manner he would support particular legislative items for which she was lobbying."

The testimony was supported by explicit text messages sent from Latvala to the woman who told the judge she tolerated "the recent unwanted touching in Senator Latvala's office."

"I felt it was something he felt entitled to," the report quotes her as saying.

The report also said the most recent text message from Latvala "concerning possible support for legislation in exchange for a sexual encounter was sent in February 2016." And she said she "finally left her work as a lobbyist [i]n large part so [she] would never have to owe [Senator Latvala] anything."

Latvala told the Times/Herald by phone that he was stunned.

"I just did not foresee this going down this way," he said, speaking from his home in Clearwater.

He said he was incredulous at the reference to the possibility that he could face criminal prosecution for allegedly trading a sexual favor for a legislative action.

"I know who that is. She was not a Senate employee at that time but I thought was one of my best friends up there," he said. "It's somebody that I thought was a close friend of mine and it really takes me aback and again, I've got to go back and see if I can find cell phone messages of whatever to find out what she's talking about."??

The veteran lawmaker said he was not considering resigning from the Senate. But later on Facebook, he posted a message that said he would meet with his legal team and discuss his future on Dec. 26 in Tallahassee.

Senate spokesperson Katie Betta said that after receiving the report Tuesday, "the Senate took appropriate action to implement the special master's recommendation that certain testimony in his report be immediately referred to law enforcement for further investigation." She would not say which law enforcement agency was notified.

With the report in hand, the Senate may now accept the special master's recommendation to conduct a hearing, or come up with its own conclusion after looking into the claims. In a note to senators, Senate President Joe Negron said the first meeting of the Rules Committee will be Thursday, Jan. 11.

Latvala's attorney, Steve Andrews, told the Times/Herald before the report came out that if Swanson found probable cause, they were considering challenging the constitutionality of the Senate rule in Leon County Circuit Court "with regards to due process issues."

A review of

Senate culture

Swanson's report also said that the scope of the evidence suggests the Senate should conduct "an internal review of Senate culture. Interaction between Senators, Senate staff and third-party lobbyists, both inside the Capitol and during off-site events and related social encounters, should be examined."

A second complaint is pending against Latvala, filed by Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, accusing Latvala of violating Senate rules by attempting to intimidate witnesses and interfering in the investigation. If he is found guilty on any of the charges, punishment could include censure or removal from office.

Perrin Rogers, 35, the chief aide for Senate Republican Leader Wilton Simpson, is the only accuser who has openly come forward against Latvala.

After initially making her allegations anonymously in a Nov. 3 article in Politico, Perrin Rogers filed a formal complaint with the Senate detailing her allegations on Nov. 5. She accused Latvala of groping her in a Senate elevator, inappropriately touching her in a private Tallahassee bar, and harassing her with offensive sexist or sexual comments over the course of four years .

Swanson found that Latvala, engaged in "inappropriate and unwanted verbal and non-verbal behavior" with her in the 2013 and 2014 sessions; had inappropriate physical contact with her in the Governor's Club in 2015; had inappropriate and unwanted contact with her four times in the 2016 and 2017 sessions; and accosted her in a Senate elevator on Oct. 9, in the most recent incident.

The one complaint that was not supported by a probable cause finding was an accusation that Latvala put his hands inside a woman's blouse in April in a Senate office.

Negron, R-Stuart, ordered two investigations. He hired Swanson to be the special master to look into Perrin Rogers' complaint, including conducting interviews under oath. He hired a second investigator, Gail Golman Holtzman, of the Tampa-based office of the Jackson Lewis law firm, to interview the anonymous accusers and anyone else who had a claim against Latvala.

Holtzman, an expert in defending organizations accused of sexual harassment claims, did not take sworn testimony or develop a transcript as part of her report, which will go to the Office of Legislative Services, not to Negron or the Senate Rules Committee. Her investigation, which began Nov. 14, is still ongoing, Betta said.

Latvala, a candidate for governor, denied each of Perrin Rogers' claims and called the allegations a politically motivated "witch hunt." He and his attorneys worked to undermine her credibility by releasing text messages between him and her and between Perrin Rogers and one of her co-workers, Lilly Tysinger.

Latvala also agreed to a polygraph test arranged by his lawyer and vowed to clear his name.

"I'm in my 16th year here, and I've got to protect my own reputation," Latvala told reporters in an interview in his Senate office two weeks ago. He added that damage to his 4-month-old campaign for governor "is done," but "I'm not going to admit to something I didn't do."

In documents filed with the special master and shared with the Times/Herald, Latvala and his attorneys raised doubts about the timing of the elevator allegations and other claims in an effort to depict Perrin Rogers as unreliable.

They produced text messages that showed that during the time she accused Latvala of harassing her, she asked to meet privately with Latvala to discuss legislation, kept him informed of the food available in the majority office suite, donated to his campaign, and asked him to use his political clout to get someone she called her stepfather out of jury duty.

Perrin Rogers' attorney, Tiffany Cruz, called her client's actions "classic victim behavior" and said her client remained in touch with Latvala because "she had to make the relationship workable so she could effectively do her job."

Latvala's lawyers also presented documents to the special master that showed the person Perrin Rogers claimed was her stepfather, a neurosurgeon whom she had asked Latvala to help get excused from jury duty in Pinellas County, was her mother's co-worker, not her spouse.

And they produced affidavits from several of Latvala's friends who attested to his character, including the testimony of lobbyist Dave Ramba. Ramba said in the affidavit that he saw Perrin Rogers crying in the bar at the Governor's Club on the February 2015 night she alleged Latvala fondled her, but he said he did not see Latvala physically touch her.

The allegations have paralyzed the Senate, already divided by a bitter ending to the 2017 legislative session.

As Latvala mounted his defense, Perrin Rogers asked for a security guard and a special prosecutor to investigate Lat­vala.

Simpson, a Trilby egg farmer, had kept a low profile when Perrin Rogers kept her identity secret, but after Latvala produced text messages over the past two years that showed that he and Rogers had a friendly relationship, Simpson blasted Latvala's tactics.

Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau staff writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this report.

Contact Mary Ellen Klas at

meklas@miamiherald.com.

Follow @MaryEllenKlas.

What happens next?

Now that a retired judge has found probable cause that Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, sexually harassed Senate aide Rachel Perrin Rogers on multiple occasions, momentum will intensify against him in the days ahead.

• Latvala answered "no" when asked if he will resign, leaving a half-million constituents with no voice in Tallahassee.

• But he'll find he has few allies in the Senate where he has been a fixture over three decades.

• Facing career-ending charges of sexual misconduct, Latvala would have to return to Tallahassee while his case casts an ominous shadow over the legislative session's opening day on Jan. 9, with a Senate Rules Committee hearing set two days later to consider the findings against him.

• Finally, the Senate is likely to act on the judge's recommendation to ask the Commission on Ethics and Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate an allegation by a new accuser, supported by text messages, that Latvala allegedly sought to trade physical contact or sexual intimacy for legislative action. The report says that could be a crime.

From the report:

The allegations of quid pro quo conduct (physical contact or sexual intimacy in exchange for support of legislative initiatives) made by a witness other than Complainant, and seemingly confirmed in text messages from Respondent, appear to violate ethics rules, and may violate laws prohibiting public corruption. The Special Master recommends these allegations be immediately referred to law enforcement for further investigation.

More from the report

•??Ms. Rogers testified about the donut incident. She was informed by the receptionist, Camille Johnson, that Senator Latvala was very angry because we did not have donuts, and she asked if I could go back and talk to him. [Rogers II p. 87] One other witness confirmed that Senator Latvala can become upset if donuts are not available.

•??Unnamed woman "testified that between 2015 and 2017, Senator Latvala touched and groped her in an unwelcome manner every time she went to his office, and that she believed tolerating such behavior was part of her job as a lobbyist. If she went to his office in the Capitol and the door closed, she pretty much [was] always touched. (She) stated that Senator Latvala placed his hands up her dress, touched the outside of her underwear at her vaginal area, her buttocks, and her breast."

•??Unnamed woman "further testified that Senator Latvala expressly intimated to her on multiple occasions, that if she engaged in sexual acts or allowed him to touch her body in a sexual manner he would support particular legislative items for which she was lobbying. This testimony is supported by explicit text messages purportedly sent from Senator Latvala to (unnamed woman). (She) tolerated the recent unwanted touching in Senator Latvala's office between 2015 and 2017. (She) testified: I felt it was something he felt entitled to."