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Sexual harassment complaint filed against selectman
Banner Daily Update Mon. Apr. 7
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — A town employee has filed a complaint alleging sexual harassment by Selectman Austin Knight.
The male employee, who asked not to be identified, delivered a letter to Town Manager Sharon Lynn Monday outlining the dates and circumstances of the alleged harassment, including multiple requests for sex by Knight to the employee dating back to approximately 2005, when Knight was a member of the water and sewer board.
“It did continue to when [Knight] was a selectman,” the employee said. “My purpose in filing the complaint is someone in his position shouldn’t be threatening a subordinate for sex.”
Lynn wouldn’t confirm Monday night that she had received a formal complaint against Knight. She said she could not comment, as any harassment charges against a town employee would be treated as a confidential personnel issue.
“If there were a complaint filed, it would be an internal matter,” she said.
Knight also wouldn’t comment when reached by the Banner Monday.
“I have no idea and no comment, he said, adding, when asked if the harassment charges were true, “I don’t know anything.”
The employee said he had neither encouraged nor accepted any of Knight’s alleged overtures but did tell some of his colleagues about the incidents when they occurred. The most recent alleged occurrence took place shortly after Thanksgiving last year, the employee said, when Knight suggested the two men drive a town-owned car with tinted windows to the Beech Forest parking lot off Race Point Road.
“He [Knight] said we could jump in the backseat and no one would see us,” the employee related, saying Knight then offered to perform oral sex on the employee. “That was the most egregious thing he said.”
Knight on at least two different occasions also put his arm around him in the Grace Gouveia building, the employee said, where the water and sewer board meetings were held, while propositioning him. The employee didn’t file a formal complaint until now because he said he felt the matter took a more serious turn during the recent town budget negotiations.
For more on this story, see the April 10 issue of the Provincetown Banner.
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Apr 3rd, 2008