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Abuse of Power or Authority / Sexual Harassment

1044: Austin Haynes

Cajsa LilliehookLeave a comment

Austin Haynes was West Virginia state delegate from 2020 to 2022. He was defeated by a Democrat in 2022. A woman who worked with him to get a bill passed filed suit in 2023 alleging sexual harassment though her intent to sue was announced by her lawyer in 2022. In 2020, Haynes sent her messages in Facebook promising to introduce the bill if elected. He didn’t. What he did do, according to her lawsuit, is send sexual and personal messages that she asked him to stop sending, but he didn’t. She alleges he offered a sexual quid pro quo for the legislation.

Her lawyer shared some of the texts which are in The Register-Herald article. The messages included gems such as, “I jacked off to one of your pics…Is that a bad thing?” “Does it bother you?” “What if I am doing it right now.” “Do you ever masturbate?”

Other women have come forward since he announced the lawsuit, including one elected candidate. A consistent them was messaging women late at night.

Complaint filed again House delegate, claiming - Register-Herald, The (Beckley, WV) - March 10, 2023 - page 1 March 10, 2023 | Register-Herald, The (Beckley, WV) | Josephine E. Moore The Register-Herald For roughly two years, a former West Virginia delegate propositioned a lobbyist for sexual favors in exchange for his support on a bill, saying this is "what happens in Charleston sometimes." This is according to a complaint filed at the end of February with Kanawha County Circuit Court by Beckley attorneys Stephen New and Emilee Withrow on behalf of a woman identified as Jane Doe, a Native American woman and descendent of the Cheraw tribe. The complaint accuses former delegate Austin Haynes of Fayette County of sexual harassment and quid pro quo, citing text messages that were mainly sent to the woman during the West Virginia Legislature's 2021 Regular Session. According to text messages filed in the complaint, Haynes sent repeated inappropriate and sexual messages to the woman, who, at the time, was working as an unpaid lobbyist/citizen advocating for the passage of a bill regarding Native American tribal recognition. In the messages, which appeared to escalate in sexual nature over time, Haynes talked about masturbation, sending pictures of his penis and saying sex was regularly used in the state capitol to earn favors with elected officials.
March 10, 2023 | Register-Herald, The (Beckley, WV)
Author/Byline: Josephine E. Moore The Register-Herald
"I wasn't insinuating that you sleep around to get the bill passed. I was just telling you what happens in Charleston sometimes …," read a message sent by Haynes to the woman during the 2021 legislative session. These messages continued for some time "despite her requests to keep all communication professional," the complaint states. In sending these messages, the complaint claims Haynes violated the West Virginia Computer Crime and Abuse Act and the state's Human Rights Act. The complaint also makes a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress stating that "Haynes' conduct was so atrocious, intolerable, and so extreme and outrageous as to exceed the bounds of decency." The West Virginia Legislature is also listed as a defendant in the complaint. It asserts that the "West Virginia Legislature was and is responsible for all the actions of Defendant Haynes done while employed by the West Virginia Legislature." Haynes was elected to the House in 2020 and served until the end of 2022. He was defeated in his reelection bid in 2022, losing to a Democrat in a predominantly Republican district. In a statement Thursday from the West Virginia House of Delegates, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, called out the attempts of the complaint to implicate the Legislature for Haynes' actions. "What former Delegate Haynes is accused of doing is reprehensible in every way," Hanshaw said in the statement. "This complaint, however, is neither appropriate nor is it accurate. The joinder of the Legislature attempted with this complaint is frivolous. I want any victims of these alleged crimes to see justice, but it will never be served in the manner sought by the filing of this complaint." Attempts by The Register-Herald to reach Haynes regarding the complaint were unsuccessful.
New told The Register-Herald that his firm did not wish to comment on the complaint at this time. However, New has previously talked to the press regarding the allegations against Haynes which New brought to light at the end of October in the midst of early voting in West Virginia's 2022 general election. After the release of the allegations, Haynes would go on to be one of the few Republicans who lost to a Democrat in the election, though he lost by only 133 votes, according to results on the secretary of state's website. New said then that he'd been contacted by multiple women, including several who worked in local government offices, who'd had similar dealing with Haynes. The Register-Herald spoke to one of these women, Huntington City Councilwoman Tia "Fix" Rumbaugh, who was first contacted by Haynes close to midnight one night in March 2020 via Facebook messenger. Rumbaugh said Haynes misrepresented himself as an elected official reaching out to a fellow official when his main intention was to elicit some type of romantic relationship. While the messages, which she eventually stopped responding to, only took place over a few months, Rumbaugh said she felt she had to be polite to Haynes because of his position.
While the messages, which she eventually stopped responding to, only took place over a few months, Rumbaugh said she felt she had to be polite to Haynes because of his position. "...if it was just some random stranger, you know you can just say, 'Hey, stop it,' right away," Rumbaugh told The Register-Herald in November. "But because this is a person who is running for office, then they have – there's a sense of power and obligation of respect and courtesy that I'm gonna guess he was abusing or at least being impolite." Haynes also used Facebook messenger to reach out to the woman in the complaint. According to the complaint, the messages began in 2019 prior to Haynes being elected to the House. The messages were in relation to a bill regarding Native American tribal recognition that the woman and David Cremeans worked on together as members of the West Virginia Native American Indian Federation. In the messages Haynes told the woman he would "introduce the bill if he won the election for House of Delegates in the 32nd District in 2020," the complaint states. After winning the election, Haynes and the woman exchanged phone numbers and "spoke regularly" during the 2020 legislative session but Haynes did not introduce the bill as promised. The following year, the woman continued lobbying for the Native American bill through communication with Haynes and other House delegates. The complaint says Haynes again promised to introduce the Native American bill and "indicated at that time he sent the bill to a bill writing committee." This is when Haynes began sending her more salacious messages
Haynes also bragged about sleeping with another delegate in the capitol. "Got laid two nights ago by another delegate ... (s)he was screaming for more. Laying on my desk at the capitol ... ." As these messages persisted, the complaint says that the woman told Haynes "on numerous occasions that she wanted to keep their relationships strictly professional." The complaint says Cremeans, who was working on the bill with the woman, also approached Haynes about his inappropriate messages in an attempt to stop them. These attempts were unsuccessful, and Haynes continued to send the woman inappropriate messages, which left her to "suffer severe emotional distress," the complaint states. Copyright 2023, Register-Herald, The / CNHI, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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