Staffer re-hired after senator accused of harassment resigns

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri Senate staff member was back at work Tuesday, a month after being fired by a senator who was facing allegations of sexually harassing interns.

Democratic Sen. Paul LeVota fired his chief of staff, Ron Berry, on July 24 shortly before LeVota announced his own resignation. Berry's dismissal was immediate, but LeVota's resignation didn't take effect until this past Sunday.

With his former boss now gone, the Senate rehired Berry as chief of staff for the vacant 11th Senatorial District, which covers LeVota's hometown of Independence and other parts of the Kansas City area.

"Ron Berry has positive work experiences in state government and is locally connected to the 11th District," Senate administrator Marga Hoelscher said in a short written statement. "Ron will assist current staff with constituent issues pertaining to the district."

LeVota has denied making unwanted sexual advances toward interns or engaging in any inappropriate activities with them. But he resigned after the public release of the allegations against him and mounting pressure from other top elected officials.

A July 22 report summarizing a Senate investigation drew no conclusions but detailed a harassment complaint made against LeVota by former intern Alissa Hembree. Among other things, Hembree said LeVota encouraged her to come to his Jefferson City duplex after drinking at a lobbyist event Jan. 26 and told her twice, "if you want to sleep with me tonight, I won't tell you no." She said she considered that to be an explicit request for sex, declined it and slept on the couch.

After the release of that report, a second person, Taylor Hirth, came forward to say LeVota had sent her late-night texts that were sexual in nature and had invited her to his duplex when she served as his intern in 2010. Hirth released what she said were screenshots of those text messages.

On July 24, Hembree provided the Associated Press with a report from an investigation into LeVota's actions by the University of Central Missouri, where she was a student. That report concluded the evidence backed up Hembree's claims LeVota sexually harassed her when he pressured her to spend the night at his Jefferson City duplex.

Before resigning later that day, LeVota sent Berry a message terminating his employment for failing to report Hembree's allegations of sexual harassment against LeVota to the Senate administrator when Hembree talked to Berry about her concerns in early February. The Senate investigation report had noted Hembree had asked Berry not to report the incident at that time.

Under Senate rules, individual senators have authority to hire and fire their own staff. But when an office is vacant, employment decisions are made by the Senate. Hoelscher said she rehired Berry with the support of the chamber's top senators.

Berry declined to comment Tuesday about his rehiring.

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