Reply to New Information on John Falcicchio - This Looks Horrible for the Mayor

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Looks like they settled. He must have another job.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/09/dc-settlement-sexual-harassment-john-falcicchio/

D.C. settles with two women who accused ex-Bowser aide of sexual harassment

The women’s complaints led to the sudden resignation of John Falcicchio, Bowser’s chief of staff and deputy mayor for planning and economic development.

By Paul Schwartzman and Michael Brice-Saddler
Updated May 9, 2024 at 4:20 p.m. EDT|Published May 9, 2024 at 12:38 p.m. EDT

The District government said Thursday that it has reached a settlement with two women who filed sexual harassment complaints against a former top adviser to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D).
In a statement, the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel (MOLC) said that “confidentiality provisions” did not allow the city to detail the terms of the settlements with the women, whose complaints led to the sudden resignation in March 2023 of John Falcicchio, Bowser’s chief of staff and deputy mayor for planning and economic development.

Falcicchio’s departure cost the mayor her closest confidant, a political adviser who had helped navigate countless crises and three successful mayoral campaigns. In his dual roles at City Hall, Falcicchio, 44, was arguably the second-most powerful official in D.C. government.

The two employees accused Falcicchio of prolonged sexual harassment, including unwanted advances and lewd messages. Investigations led by lawyers for the mayor’s office substantiated the allegations made by both employees.
The lawyers confirmed the settlements after Mark Segraves of NBC4 reported the resolutions on X. A person with knowledge of the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss it, said the settlement with one of the women involved a cash payment ranging from $300,000 to $500,000.
Falcicchio, who earned $230,000 a year in his administration role, could not be reached Thursday. His attorney, Grace Speights, did not respond to a request for comment. Falcicchio declined the MOLC’s request for an interview last year during the office’s investigation of the complaints. He has not commented publicly about the allegations or the MOLC’s findings.

Debra S. Katz and Kayla Morin, the attorneys representing the two accusers, declined to detail the terms of the settlements. The attorneys, in a statement, said the city’s sexual harassment policy had “allowed his behavior to go unchecked for too long.” After the second woman came forward in March 2023, the attorneys described Falcicchio’s conduct as “longstanding” and “predatory” in a statement at the time.
Under pressure to review her administration’s sexual harassment policy, which was implemented in 2017, Bowser in November released new guidelines that included an updated definition of sexual harassment and other changes intended to offer clarity to government employees. One month earlier, in October, The Washington Post found through a records request that about 300 D.C. employees had lodged sexual harassment complaints since the policy went into effect.
The Falcicchio scandal burst into public view after his abrupt resignation, when Katz and Morin announced they were representing a staffer who had accused him of sexual harassment. Days later, the attorneys said they had taken on a second client, also a staffer who alleged that Falcicchio had harassed her.

The complaints prompted Bowser to ask the MOLC to undertake two investigations and plunged the administration into a crisis as the mayor also contended with rising crime and mounting pandemic-era fiscal challenges.
Bowser was the focus of criticism after her administration, without notice, posted the results of the MOLC’s investigation into the first accuser’s complaint on an obscure city website at night during a holiday weekend. The probe concluded that Falcicchio had harassed the woman by twice making physical advances and sending her “unwanted” lurid and explicit messages, “including a graphic video.”
The first accuser, a staffer in her 20s who worked in Falcicchio’s economic development office, provided The Post with screenshots of hundreds of electronic communications she said she had exchanged with him, as well as a graphic image taken from a video she said he had sent her. The woman, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity because she feared retribution, said during interviews last summer that she never had sex with Falcicchio but had feigned interest in him to keep her job and gather evidence of his harassment.

The woman did not answer her phone or respond to a text seeking comment Thursday.
The lawyers for the mayor’s office also substantiated the second accuser’s allegations that Falcicchio on five separate occasions had made unwelcome sexual advances toward her, including at his apartment where she was summoned “at his direction for work-related reasons,” according to the investigatory report. The woman’s attorneys declined to make her available for an interview last year.
Members of the D.C. Council last summer questioned whether it was sufficient for Bowser’s legal office, which reports to the mayor, to investigate the complaints.

In July, lawmakers passed an emergency measure ordering a third party to review the MOLC’s findings and investigate further. The Office of the Inspector General retained the law firm of Arnold & Porter at a cost to taxpayers of $749,600, according to city records. The firm is expected to deliver its findings to the council and mayor’s office by Friday’s deadline, according to David Connerty-Marin, a spokesman for council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), who introduced the legislation.

Connerty-Marin said Thursday that the law requires the inspector general to provide “findings and recommendations” to the mayor and council. In a letter last year, the inspector general’s office said the report’s findings will comply with applicable privacy laws and will be redacted as appropriate.
The law firm was also asked to review claims made in the two complaints that the lawyers for the mayor’s office said were outside the scope of its investigation, including concerns around workplace culture as well as hiring and promotion practices within Falcicchio’s office.

[/quote]

So Johnny Money lands, still pals around with Bowser and developers at the Masters, and DC taxpayers get stuck with her tab... and his.[/quote]

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