Accusing Senator Jack Latvala of a “scorched-earth approach” to defame his accuser, a Democratic senator from Plantation lodged a new formal complaint against the Clearwater Republican, accusing him of violating Senate rules by attempting to intimidate witnesses in the sexual harassment investigation against him.
Sen. Lauren Book, a freshman legislator and member of the Senate Rules Committee, filed the complaint with Senate Rules Committee Chair Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, late Tuesday. The four-page complaint alleges that Latvala violated the Senate rules by using “undue influence” to interfere with the investigation against him and for violating the confidentiality agreement he signed with the Senate.
“It appears the Senator may have engaged in behavior that violates the trust we sought to establish, and which every alleged victim of misconduct deserves, by potentially victimizing, or re-victimizing, the complainant,” wrote Book, herself a childhood victim of sexual abuse. “It appears by many accounts that Sen. Latvala and his legal team are engaging in the very same type of courtroom tactics practiced by criminal defense lawyers in sexual assault cases, both childhood and adult.”
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
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