Former Tennessee lawmaker sues General Assembly over harassment probe records

A former Tennessee state representative who resigned in 2023 over a sexual harassment complaint sued the General Assembly's Office of Legislative Administration on Tuesday, alleging the administrative office is withholding records to shield another high-ranking member from a separate harassment complaint.

Former Rep. Scotty Campbell, R-Mountain City, alleges he was forced to resign by House Republican Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, in an effort to conceal a separate complaint against the GOP leader.

Faison denied the allegations on Tuesday.

Campbell filed the lawsuit in Davidson County Circuit Court against the OLA, which acts as a HR department for the legislature, and Connie Ridley, the office's director.

According to the lawsuit, Ridley denied Campbell's request for records for documents related to the investigation and complaint made against him last year.

Campbell's filing cites a separate lawsuit over the harassment complaint records, in which a Davidson County judge in January cited a previously unknown complaint against Faison. The OLA seemingly provided a copy of this record, which the judge characterized as a complaint against Faison containing an alleged victim's name, along with Campbell's records in the case.

In January, Faison declined to answer questions on the judge's ruling, but House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, issued a statement denying any complaint had been made against Faison.

On Tuesday, Faison denied Campbell's allegations and the existence of any complaint.

"Whatever he's alleging is not there," Faison said. "It's non-existent."

Faison couldn't explain why the judge would reference a complaint and alleged victim's name related to Faison in his ruling.

"The judge said some stuff, but there is no complaint against me," Faison said. "That's what you just need to know."

Faison declined to comment when asked if he asked Campbell to resign last year.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, defended Faison in a brief statement Wednesday.

"The legal complaint is meritless," Sexton said.

In a statement, Ridley reiterated the office's position that "all matters related to the Legislature's policy are confidential."

"This position is consistent with the Court’s ruling that the policy has the standing of state law and that the rules provide that these records are outside the purview of public access," Ridley said. "Any related materials, if such exist, are not subject to disclosure and will not be made available. Confidentiality in our workplace policy promote reporting, deters retaliation and inhibits revictimization."

A House ethics subcommittee in March found Campbell violated the chamber's harassment policy by sexually harassing an intern.

The panel recommended no specific consequences, and its report was quietly placed in Campbell's personnel file .

House leadership took no known actions against Campbell after he was found to have sexually harassed an intern.

In his new lawsuit, Campbell denies harassing the intern, alleging he has text messages to prove any conversations he had with the intern were "consensual, after work and not at work." Campbell alleges Ridley "refused to look" at the text messages when investigating the complaint.

Campbell resigned from office during a recess of a House floor session after a NewsChannel5 report revealed the complaint and details of the legislature paying to move the intern. Faison at the time denied ever knowing about the complaint against Campbell, who was vice-chair of the GOP caucus, and the subcomittee's findings until it became public.

"Mr. Campbell categorically denies that he violated" the legislature's harassment policy, the lawsuit states.

Campbell left office less than two hours after he told The Tennessean he had no plans to resign. Campbell now alleges Faison told him he could resign or be expelled and risk losing his health insurance.

Legislative officials have refused to release any record — or even acknowledge — that thousands of taxpayer dollars may have been spent to relocate the intern. Rather than redact identifying names and information, the OLA repeatedly denied in full requests for related records submitted by The Tennessean seeking transparency.

Due to the opaque nature of the process, it is unclear if lawmakers followed state law and legislative expenditure rules in their attempts to remedy the situation.

Ridley and OLA were sued over the issue last fall, but a Davidson County judge in January ruled it can legally shield its records of sexual harassment investigations from the public. The judge's ruling also cited the previously unknown complaint against Faison.

The reference to Faison contained no details of the complaint, but the judge's ruling detailed the records OLA provided to the court to review in the public records case.

Among them were a "blue, letter-sized file folder" labeled "COMPLAINT 3/17/23" which contained materials related to the complaint against Campbell, in addition to a "second blue letter-sized file folder dated 4/5/23, with an alleged victim's first name containing two pages of notes pertaining to a complaint against Representative Faison."

OLA also gave the court Faison's redacted and non-redacted personnel files. A redacted version of Faison's file reviewed by The Tennessean last year contained no mention of a complaint or investigation.

Evan Mealins contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Former Tennessee lawmaker sues legislature over harassment records