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| Conn. Prison Chief Accused Of Harassment |
| By Hartford Courant |
| Published: 10/15/2002 |
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A former top aide has accused Correction Commissioner John Armstrong and members of his staff of keeping a phallic object in the agency's headquarters and sexually harassing employees with it. The allegations raised by Maria M. Houser during a public hearing Thursday at the Capitol brought the continuing investigation of sexual harassment in the state's prison system literally to Armstrong's front door. The object, made of tightly rolled socks bound by rubber bands or gloves, was reportedly found outside Armstrong's office in 1996 or 1997. Armstrong, through a spokeswoman Friday, called the sexual harassment allegations 'absolutely outrageous and false.' A senior warden, who worked in the central office at the time, acknowledged that such an object existed. Michael J. Donahue, one of Armstrong's former legislative liaisons, said Friday that he found the object sticking out of a gift bag in a reception area near Armstrong's office about five years ago. 'I grabbed it, and knowing the commissioner would be outraged, secured it in my office. I do not recall ever gratuitously displaying it to anyone,' he said. Donahue said he quickly disposed of the object, but he said he could not remember how. Houser, the correction department's former personnel director, stunned spectators when, during her testimony before the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, which is leading the current investigation, she raised the specter of Armstrong's teasing employees with a phallic sex toy. But Houser admitted that she had never seen the item. |
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