(The Center Square) – The Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday will vote on whether state Rep. Bryan Slaton should be expelled.
A House investigative committee unanimously recommended that Slaton, R-Royse City, be expelled from the House. Expulsion requires a two-third majority vote.
Slaton was accused last month by two 19-year-old legislative aides and one 21-year-old intern, all women, of engaging in inappropriate workplace conduct, “specifically conduct constituting sexual harassment and retaliation.”
When asked last month if the allegations were true, Slaton didn’t return requests for comment to The Center Square.
According to a report, the 19-year-old legislative aide, Sophie A., knowingly engaged in a sexual relationship with Slaton, a married man. She also received alcohol from him at his residence, according to the complaints filed by the three women. Sophie A.’s colleagues appear to have reported the mutual relationship between she and Slaton.
The complaints were signed by the three women under penalty of perjury. A former judge, Catherine Evans, prepared an investigative report based on their statements, which was presented to the House committee on May 1.
After reviewing the report, the committee determined that “reasonable cause existed to believe that Slaton violated” a House rule, resolution or policy by “engaging in inappropriate workplace conduct” and set a hearing for May 4. The hearing was held and the report’s findings were adopted by five members of the committee and presented to the full House on May 6.
The committee concluded that Slaton violated House Rule 15 by “engaging in harassment prohibited by law … by both inappropriate physical behavior and having sexual intercourse with a legislative aide working in his state office and over whom he had primary responsibility for overseeing and who was unable to give effective consent,” they argue, because she had been drinking alcohol.
The report also concludes that Slaton violated the House Drug and Alcohol Policy by providing alcohol to Sophie A., who he knew was under the legal drinking age of 21.
He also violated other House rules, according to the report, which constituted offenses of abuse of official capacity, unlawful employment practices, disorderly conduct, among others.
The report states that neither Slaton nor Sophie A. deny their sexual relationship and neither Slaton nor his attorney “presented any exculpatory evidence” at the hearing.
“Slaton has not expressed regret or remorse for his conduct to the committee,” the report states. “Slaton has not publicly expressed regret or remorse for his conduct.”
If the House expels him, it will be the first time it’s done so since 1927. In the 40th Legislature, the House expelled two representatives after an investigative committee recommended their expulsion on the grounds that they were “guilty of conduct unbecoming any member of the House of Representatives, and unjustifiable upon any principle of sound and safe government.”
Slaton, a “proud East Texan with values and principles that represent the great people of East Texas,” claims his values were “formed as he grew up regularly participating in church and family gatherings,” according to his official bio. He earned a double major in Youth Ministry/Speech Communication from Ouachita Baptist University and a Masters of Divinity with Biblical Languages degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served as a Youth and Family Minister for 13 years. He is married with two young children.
This article First appeared in the center square