Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/author/ryland-barton/)
Ryland Barton is the Capitol bureau chief for Kentucky Public Radio. He's covered politics and state government for NPR member stations KWBU in Waco and KUT in Austin. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Texas. He grew up in Lexington.
In a demand letter, a former House staffer said another legislator witnessed Rep. Jeff Hoover and the woman interact and complained about it. The legislator told KyCIR that wasn’t true.
Our investigation found that the legislative commission that looked into Rep. Jeff Hoover’s alleged ethics violations knew about the woman’s claims of unwanted touching, but didn’t publicly discuss them or seriously investigate the veracity of the claim.
A lawyer representing the accuser says she will appeal to a higher court to stop the deposition from taking place.
House Speaker David Osborne said in a statement that he “takes all allegations of a hostile work environment seriously.”
Former Rep. Brad Montell’s name was not associated with the sexual harassment scandal until KyCIR reported on the contents of the deposition. The woman said Montell made a sexually suggestive remark when she asked him to donate to a candidate she was working for.
The Kentucky Democratic Party is calling for Republican state Reps. Jeff Hoover and Michael Meredith to resign in the wake of an investigation published Tuesday detailing testimony by a former staffer alleging sexual harassment by the lawmakers. The woman alleged that Hoover sexually assaulted her more than 50 times, and that Meredith screamed vulgar comments at her. The woman, identified in some court records as Jane Doe, made the allegations in a sealed deposition obtained by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and Kentucky Public Radio. In the 270-page document, the woman alleged that Hoover repeatedly groped her without her consent throughout her employment with the House Republican Caucus between 2015 and 2017.
Hoover, the former Speaker of the House, has said he exchanged inappropriate texts but denied any sexual contact. The staffer said under oath that Hoover sexually assaulted her.
As friends and family gathered at the Heart of Fire Church in Louisville’s Fern Creek neighborhood, the front lawn became a parking lot to accommodate hundreds of Johnson’s mourners, many of whom rode in on motorcycles.
Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson’s suicide following sexual assault allegations has Frankfort reeling.
State Rep. Dan Johnson committed suicide Wednesday evening, two days after the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting published accusations that he sexually assaulted a minor. Johnson was a preacher from Mt. Washington in Bullitt County. He shot himself on a bridge over the Salt River, according to WDRB. Johnson posted a suicide note on Facebook Wednesday evening calling the accusations false and telling conservatives to “take a stand.”
“AMERICA will not survive this type of judge and jury fake news,” Johnson wrote.