ANCHORAGE (AP) — Republican candidate for governor, Charlie Pierce, faces a lawsuit alleging that he sexually harassed a former assistant while he was mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
The lawsuit filed in state Superior Court on Friday accuses Pierce of “constant unwanted physical touching, sexual remarks, and sexual advances,” the Anchorage Daily News reported.
The borough already has paid two other former employees a combined $267,000 in settlements for separate complaints against Pierce.
“When an elected official abuses their power and position to sexually harass public servants, they must be held accountable,” said Caitlin Shortell, the Anchorage-based attorney representing the woman.
Pierce is one of four candidates running for governor in Alaska. “I have no comments on future litigation,” Pierce told the AP following a debate on Saturday. He said he also had no plans to end his campaign just a few weeks before the Nov. 8 election. “I’ll be in the race.”
The lawsuit also names the Kenai Peninsula Borough as a defendant in the case, claiming the local government failed to protect the woman. She also claims the borough provided no way to report harassment or discrimination without fear of reprisal.
According to the lawsuit, the woman was Pierce’s assistant for about 18 months, until June 2022.
Pierce announced in August he would resign in September to focus on his campaign for governor, which was not the entire truth. He had about a year and a half left in his term. The borough assembly later released a statement stating Pierce was asked to consider voluntarily resigning after an employee made what were deemed credible claims of harassment against him.
In the lawsuit, the woman claims Pierce touched her breast, made sexual remarks, falsely imprisoned her in his private office, kissed her neck and face, asked questions about her sex life and made unwanted and unsolicited embraces and massages.
The borough “knew or should have known that Pierce was a sexual harasser and bully,” the lawsuit says.
In one of the previous complaints against Pierce, the borough paid former human resources director Sandra “Stormy” Brown $150,000 in a settlement after she claimed in a lawsuit that Pierce fired her after she told him she had been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. She claimed gender discrimination, disability discrimination and creating a hostile work environment.
The borough also paid $117,000 to settle a complaint from a subsequent human resources director if the employee agreed he would not make “further allegations of ‘illegal acts’ by Mayor Pierce” and rescind his allegations of bullying.
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