ST. CROIX — The Senate Committee on Ethical Conduct is investigating a claim Senator Carla Joseph made against Senator Franklin Johnson alleging sexual harassment and assault stemming from a handshake between the two while on the floor ahead of legislative session last November, according to the Senate president.
While Joseph alleges inappropriate conduct before legislative session convened November 14, 2023 in the Earle B. Ottley Legislative Hall on St. Thomas, Johnson refutes her claim.
Joseph said Johnson approached her on the floor while she was on her way to the restroom, so she extended her hand to greet him. She said he shook her hand while discussing an amendment he had. She said she acknowledged his statement and asked him to release her hand because she needed to use the restroom.
“He proceeded to then squeeze further down on my hand, and I told him, ‘I need to go to the restroom,’ and he wouldn’t loose my hand,” Joseph, of the 11-member Democratic majority who serves as legislative secretary and chairs the Committee on Government Operations, Veterans Affairs and Consumer Protection, said. “Then he said, ‘whatever I can do in the bathroom, I could do right here on the floor, we are all grown people.’ I proceeded to call out to the sergeant of arms at that point, and then he called out and just dropped my hand.”
Joseph said she filed a complaint with the Office of Senate President Novelle Francis Jr. last November, noting she amended it last December while also attesting that her allegations were true.
“I filed a complaint for sexual harassment as well as assault and battery, and I asked that Senator Frankie Johnson apologize publicly for what he did because that is really behavior that is unbecoming a senator,” she said. “We should not be doing that and saying those things to colleagues.”
Johnson refutes the claim.
“At the end of the day she made an allegation that I refute, and there’s no evidence behind of it at this point but there’s an investigation going on, and I prefer to not comment while they have this investigation presumedly, which I haven’t been investigated from December until now,” Johnson, an independent who is among the four-member Senate minority, said.
Johnson requested another week or two before he would offer additional comment, pending receipt of information resulting from the ongoing investigation.
“I’m a very straightforward person but I don’t want to have [a] conversation without all the knowledge myself, and as all indication that there was way insufficient information or anything that could have pursued to go any farther, so I prefer to not talk while there is some sort [of] claim of an investigation going on,” he said.
Johnson acknowledged that he wrote a report in response to the allegation.
“Basically, it was a handshake, and she stretched it out to what she wants to do it,” he said.
Francis, in his capacity as Senate president, received the complaint that Joseph filed with his office. He said Johnson submitted a response as required that denied the allegation, so he forwarded the matter for review to the five-member Committee on Ethical Conduct chaired by Senator Diane Capehart, Committee on Rules and Judiciary chair.
“They’re conducting their investigation, and a report is due back to me in terms of recommendation by the Ethics Committee any day now, so I’m awaiting that committee report,” Francis said. “Based on the committee report, then the Rules and Regulations of the 35th Legislature spells out how those matters will be handled as it proceeds forward in this complaint that has been lodged against Senator Franklin Johnson.”
Francis declined to name the other four senators who compose the Committee on Ethical Conduct at this time, but clarified their names would be revealed to the public upon conclusion of the investigation. He said the committee would offer a recommendation to the full body, which would act on a resolution during a public hearing.
“Based on the recommendations of the committee, those things would be taken under advisement, and again legal counsel would provide consult, but at some point based on whatever that recommendation may have been, a final decision will be made by the whole, by a resolution to all of the senators,” he said.
Joseph noted that she included in her complaint a previous incident between her and Johnson in 2021 during which he allegedly became “verbally abusive,” and apologized.
“This is the second time that a move from verbal to now physical, to restraining my hand,” she said.
Despite filing the complaint, Joseph said she did not want it to be a distraction from the ongoing work of the Legislature, which she noted includes challenges with disaster recovery, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority, and in-person school attendance.
