Sexual Harassment

Is There A Problem With How The DOJ Handles Sexual Harassment?

The report noted that the mishandled sexual harassment cases were not outliers.

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Department of Justice DOJ USDOJ sealThere’s a problem with sexual harassment at the Department of Justice. In a blistering report, Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz blasted the way the Civil Division handles cases of sexual harassment, citing inconsistent policies which often led to inequitable or weak penalties.

The report found record keeping was poor, and misconduct was frequently not reported to human resources. Punishments netted out were often minor compared with the severity of the incident. “We determined that in general the penalties for substantiated allegations, including ones we found to be serious, were nothing more than written reprimands, title changes, and reassignment for cases in which the subjects of the allegations were supervisory/senior attorneys,” the report said. Additionally, if managers valued your work, the report found you were more likely to see less severe consequences. The Washington Post documents some of the most egregious examples:

For example, a male attorney accused of groping two female colleagues received a written reprimand for “inappropriate touching” but no further discipline, even though he had been disciplined before for sending inappropriate emails of a “sexual nature,” the report said.

In another case, a male attorney was accused on two occasions of peering into the offices of female attorneys who were pumping breast milk. The second allegation was not reported to human resources officials. Then, a supervisor “accepted the male attorney’s explanation of the incident as an honest mistake and imposed on him an informal disciplinary action of oral counseling,” the report said.

If the incident had been reported higher up the management chain, investigators said, the discipline would likely have been stronger.

The report noted that the mishandled sexual harassment cases were not outliers, and it described the issue as “systemic”:

“The repeated nature of the alleged misconduct in these examples demonstrates that local handling of such issues is not ensuring that harassment is ‘eliminated in a manner that is prompt and effective,’ as the zero tolerance policy requires,” Horowitz wrote. He noted that the agency leaves it to the employee to self-report any discipline to security officials when the employee’s security clearance is up for renewal, another troubling issue.

Let’s not forget, the folks that work at the Civil Division are predominately attorneys, who should really know better. Of course, all work environments should strive to handle sexual harassment claims appropriately, but come on. Failure to document incidents? Not reporting cases? Unequal application of standards? This is Lawyering 101. If the lawyers can’t follow the rules, then who can?

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Watchdog finds ‘systemic’ weakness in responses to sexual misconduct allegations inside DOJ [Washington Post]

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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