Ethics commission advances investigation of Kentucky House Rep. Grossberg

The Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission voted unanimously Tuesday that a complaint alleging misconduct by state House Rep. Daniel Grossberg merits further inquiry.

Though the commission members did not mention Grossberg’s name before the vote, they did label the complaint as 24-LEC-03, which is the same number as a copy of the original complaint obtained by Kentucky Public Radio.

Three Democratic leaders in the House minority allege the Democratic legislator from Louisville committed multiple violations of their code of ethics in a complaint filed with the commission July 31 and processed by the commission on Aug. 2.

The complaint included a copy of a Lexington Herald-Leader article from July 30 that referenced what it called “sexually charged” text messages sent by Grossberg to two unnamed women. The story said Grossberg called two different women “exotic” and “beautiful” in the exchanges.

The rest of the Aug. 2 complaint made a wide variety of allegations against Grossberg related to a campaign donor, the purchase of a vehicle, his treatment of a staffer and a letter to a group of students. The copy of the complaint obtained by Kentucky Public Radio referenced the texts covered by the Herald-Leader, but did not mention any of the other more serious allegations of sexual harassment by three unnamed women in a subsequent story by the newspaper on Aug. 20.

Grossberg’s attorney Anna Whites gave the media a five-page response to the allegations in the complaint on Aug. 16, calling them “baseless” and urging the ethics commission to “strongly reject this improper misuse of the ethics complaint system” and dismiss the complaint.

“While Rep. Grossberg has apologized for any communication a third party found upsetting, no communications included in the Complaint are of a sexual or inappropriate nature,” Whites wrote. “No ethical misconduct has occurred and Rep. Grossberg has not breached the legislative code of ethics or other statutes or regulations governing his conduct.”

The previous day, House Democratic leadership confirmed it had removed Grossberg from his committee assignments during the interim session. They stated that the decision was made “in light of new information” they received from Legislative Research Commission officials.

Whites blamed the decision to remove him on “ internal power struggles ” within the Democratic caucus, saying that the full context of the text messages in the original Herald-Leader story show there was nothing inappropriate or rising to the level of sexual harassment.

In Tuesday’s meeting, the commission voted 8-0 for a motion finding that “there is reason to believe that the respondent has committed” a violation of the code of ethics. The motion added that “this determination means only that the alleged violations merit further inquiry and is not a finding that the respondent has violated” the code.

Several chapters of the Kentucky Young Democrats have called on Grossberg to resign, while Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said he should give "serious thought" to leaving office.

Clarification: A previous version of the story said the complaint was filed Aug. 2, but that was the date the commission processed it.

State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.