Two top aides to Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan who were ousted over sexual harassment complaints should never be rehired as state employees, the General Assembly’s watchdog said Wednesday.
The recommendations against Tim Mapes, Madigan’s former chief of staff and House clerk, and former district office employee Kevin Quinn, the brother of 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, represent the latest public rebukes of the speaker’s operation since the start of 2018.
In the fallout from the #MeToo scandal, Madigan has split with several aides and longtime allies and admitted he failed to do enough to address the culture of sexual harassment at the Capitol. On another front, Madigan allies have found themselves under federal scrutiny as authorities have raided the homes of several of the speaker’s allies in recent months as part of an unrelated investigation.
On Wednesday, however, the harassment complaints were front and center as Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope cited Mapes for “conduct of a sexual nature with the purpose and effect of creating an intimidating, hostile and offensive working environment.”
In response, Mapes’ attorney said the report “improperly maligns Mapes’ entire career with spurious allegations and disregards the honorable contributions that Mapes made on behalf of the state of Illinois.”
Mapes was ousted in June 2018 after Sherri Garrett, who worked in the clerk and speaker’s offices, publicly came forward with allegations that for years she endured and witnessed bullying and repeated harassment by Mapes, saying it was “often sexual and sexist in nature.”
Pope also found that Kevin Quinn violated the sexual harassment provision of the state ethics act through his conduct against a whistleblower campaign worker. But the watchdog added that because Quinn’s misconduct occurred before lawmakers added the sexual harassment ban to the ethics act, she could not pursue a formal charge of sexual harassment against him.
Kevin Quinn’s conduct came to light when Madigan dismissed him in February 2018 following sexual harassment allegations brought forward by Alaina Hampton, a campaign worker who at times held government jobs. She alleged Quinn sent her a string of inappropriate text messages.
Pope said her predecessor referred the Quinn matter to the Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to consider criminal charges, but Raoul declined to prosecute.
In response to the watchdog report, Kevin Quinn said that he “took full responsibility for my behavior” and apologized to Hampton, his ex-wife and former co-workers.
Madigan said in a statement included with the report that “harassment and discrimination by any employee of the office of the speaker will not be tolerated.”
Hampton’s allegations
Pope inherited the Kevin Quinn case from former Legislative Inspector General Julie Porter, who investigated in the aftermath of Hampton’s high-profile sexual harassment allegations.
Hampton was a campaign worker in Madigan’s political operation and viewed Kevin Quinn as one of her bosses, a point Madigan’s lawyers dispute. Hampton had provided the Tribune with a series of explicit texts that Kevin Quinn had sent her, including one in which he referenced a Facebook picture of Hampton in a bikini and called her “smoking hot.”
In those texts, Hampton discouraged Quinn’s overtures to go out with him, saying she wanted to keep the relationship professional. The unwanted contact stopped after she informed Ald. Quinn, she said at the time.
In Wednesday’s report, Pope wrote that Quinn’s text messages to Hampton became “increasingly personal,” and Hampton had the impression that he was “obsessed with her.” When Quinn told Hampton in early 2017 that he looked forward to working with her over the next two years, the message “induced a panic attack. Hampton’s anxiety increased significantly, overall,” the report stated.
Hampton sent a personal letter detailing some of her allegations to Madigan at his home in November 2017. Madigan announced Kevin Quinn’s firing in February 2018 as Hampton prepared to take legal action.
Hampton has contended that Madigan should have dismissed Kevin Quinn a year earlier after she said she complained about him to Ald. Marty Quinn. Ald. Quinn has said Hampton didn’t want his brother reprimanded when she reported him — a point she disputes — and that Madigan was not told about the matter when Hampton first came forward.
Wednesday’s report also includes an exchange of texts about Quinn’s conduct that Hampton had with a friend, identified only as Individual A. The texts show Hampton saying that she would “never do anything to hurt” Madigan or Ald. Quinn, whom she once considered a mentor.
The report also mentions that “according to Individual A, Hampton also made several jokes about using the texts as blackmail for money, but Individual A took the comments to be in jest.”
Pope noted that Individual A declined to be interviewed and said his “credibility and demeanor could not be judged.” In her own statement to Pope, Hampton said she had never spoken of blackmail, “in jest or otherwise.”
Hampton also accused Madigan attorney Heather Wier Vaught of raising the issue with the inspector general about Individual A as a way to smear her.
“Wier Vaught is engaging in a continued effort to silence me, undermine my credibility, and further damage my career, all to protect Speaker Madigan and his organization,” Hampton said in a statement included with Pope’s report.
“Ultimately, this kind of misguided tactic can only serve to ensure that victims of sexual harassment stay silent and perpetrators go unpunished,” she added.
Kevin Quinn declined to be interviewed as part of Pope’s investigation, and that’s why she recommended he be placed on the state’s do-not-hire list.
Quinn also has drawn additional scrutiny since Hampton’s allegations. The Tribune first reported the FBI executed a search warrant at his West Beverly home in mid-May. That’s about the same time federal agents also raided the homes of two other Madigan allies. Among information the FBI has sought were records of communications related to attempts to get ComEd lobbying work for former 23rd Ward Ald. Mike Zalewski, a law enforcement source has said.
In July, the Tribune disclosed that federal authorities are looking at checks to Kevin Quinn worth $10,000 that are tied to current and former ComEd lobbyists, most of whom are Madigan allies.
Mapes complaint
Pope’s investigation of Mapes stemmed from a complaint filed by Garrett about week after she detailed her allegations at a June 2018 news conference.
Pope’s report covers much of the same ground, including a December 2014 incident when Garrett was helping plan inauguration festivities, including how the judge who was going to conduct the ceremony would get onto the stage.
“Mapes, out of nowhere, looked at Ms. Garrett and said, ‘Well one thing I want to be sure of is that you’re not going to show your pink bra to the judge,’ ” according to the report.
Mapes’ attorney, James Pullos, disputed Garrett’s account.
“He never commented about Ms. Garrett wearing a ‘pink bra;’ rather, Mapes merely commented to all staff that professional dress is expected from the men and women,” Pullos wrote in a six-page response. “Mapes referenced a ‘pink bra’ in the context of an earlier incident involving another staff person’s inappropriate dress.”
The accounts from Garrett, whom Pope “found … to be entirely credible,” were corroborated by three other employees in the speaker’s office, including two witnesses who “worked closely with Mapes and generally had good relationships with him,” according to the report.
“It was clear to me that Ms. Garrett is still traumatized by Mr. Mapes’ inappropriate conduct over many years,” Pope wrote. “Even though Ms. Garrett is now retired, when recounting the events described above, Ms. Garrett was trembling and emotionally wrought.”
Mapes also made light of sexual harassment training required for lawmakers and state employees, the report says.
In addition to engaging in sexual harassment even after a ban had been added to state law, Mapes violated the ethics act by refusing to cooperate with the investigation, Pope concluded.
Pullos took issue with that, saying “Mapes was not an employee at the time of the LIG’s investigation” and isn’t required to be interviewed.
Mapes, who also was dismissed as the executive director of the Madigan-led state Democratic Party, is collecting a taxpayer-funded pension of more than $133,000 a year.
Wednesday’s report follows the August release of a more extensive outside investigation into Madigan’s office and his Democratic caucus, which found that people across the Capitol repeatedly faced sexual harassment and bullying, and feared retaliation if they spoke out.
The report from Maggie Hickey, a former federal prosecutor and state executive inspector general under former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, pointed much of the blame at Mapes but also uncovered “a purported culture of negative treatment that faced people who were perceived to challenge Speaker Madigan on any issue.”
A few weeks earlier, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a package of sweeping sexual harassment legislation that extends protections against harassment and discrimination to public- and private-sector workplaces statewide.
Under that legislation, state officials, employees and lobbyists all must go through annual sexual harassment training. Private sector employers are required to provide sexual harassment training and could not require workers to sign non-disclosure or arbitration agreements related to harassment or discrimination.
Madigan pointed to that law as part of his #MeToo reform efforts.
“I have strengthened and improved protections for victims of harassment in both my office and across my political organizations,” Madigan said in a statement Wednesday. “These changes include instituting mandatory training on sexual harassment, intimidation, and other important workplace protections, and creating strong reporting mechanisms to report workplace complaints. I am committed to ensuring that anyone who reports a complaint is protected, they are treated fairly and that everyone has a safe and welcoming work environment.”
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