Mayor Kip Holden issued a statement today flatly denying allegations made by a Kansas City woman, who accused “the mayor of Baton Rouge” of sexually harassing her in 2010 when the company she worked for attempted to land a contract with the city-parish. Holden has been mayor since 2005.
Holden says he was not even aware of a lawsuit filed by the woman in 2011 against her then-employer, Tetra Tech, and that the suit was subsequently resolved outside of court without his knowledge or involvement.
“I was not aware of a lawsuit being filed and have never been named as a party or even asked to be a witness,” Holden says in the statement. “This claim was made five years ago and the matter was apparently settled by the parties three years ago without my involvement.”
The allegations surfaced locally on Wednesday, when a local news outlet picked up on a story from a Kansas City weekly publication, The Pitch, which recounted the lawsuit as part of reporting on an election in the city. One of the candidates in Kansas City was named in the suit.
As The Pitch reports, the suit was filed by Cynthia Sloan against Tetra Tech and her boss. The suit never named Holden directly and didn’t list him as a defendant. However, Sloan reportedly describes being sexually harassed on multiple occasions by the “mayor of Baton Rouge” in 2010, and claims the company and her boss encouraged her to endure the alleged harassment.
“My recollection of the visit to Baton Rouge by several staff members of Tetra Tech is that we met as a group. My wife and I took one of the women to dinner and to my birthday party as our guest,” Holden says in his statement. “When the two women at Tetra Tech had their employment dispute, I was contacted by the company and I assured them that anything more than that did not occur.”
Holden says it is his understanding the woman “made similar accusations against other public officials who the company met with and both of the women involved in this dispute no longer work for the company.”
“Sexual harassment in the workplace is a serious matter and complaints should be taken seriously,” Holden’s statement says. “I have lived my entire adult life in the political arena and understand these types of things occur, as they are occurring now in a political race in Kansas City involving one of the parties. Fortunately, both my wife and I know the truth on this one.”
Read The Pitch’s original story here.
—Steve Sanoski
