Panel: N.J. Gov. Murphy’s staff botched sex assault claim response

TRENTON — Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration botched its handling of a sexual assault claim by one state worker against another, a legislative panel found in a report published on Wednesday.

The Legislative Select Oversight Committee released the 123-page document after holding nine public hearings and listening to hours of testimony. The report included a number of recommendations for changes to law and policy.

The investigation stemmed from a complaint that emerged in an October 2018 account in the Wall Street Journal. Katie Brennan, chief of staff of the state’s housing authority, alleged that Albert Alvarez sexually assaulted her while they were working to get Murphy, a Democrat, elected in 2017.

Alvarez, who left as chief of staff at the Schools Development Authority last year, has denied the allegations. Law enforcement officials declined to bring charges.

The committee said it found that Murphy’s administration appeared more concerned with “avoiding negative publicity” than following procedures, and should have investigated Brennan’s allegations more thoroughly.

The stateAttorney General’s Office, which was informed of the allegation but declined to pursue it, should have investigated instead of dismissing the claim on jurisdictional grounds, according to the report. Similarly, Murphy’s transition team failed to seriously investigate the claim, it said.

“It is not the system that failed Katie Brennan,” Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said Wednesday. “It is the people that made up the system that failed.”

In a statement, Murphy press secretary Alyana Alfaro pointed to the internal review and regulatory changes Murphy pursued after the allegations became public.

“Gov. Murphy has long said that we can and must do better to allow survivors of sexual assault to seek justice,” she said.

In a statement, Brennan said her voice went “unheard” at every stage of the process.

"The findings of this report confirm what I have known all along — that sexual violence survivors in this state still cannot expect to receive justice," she said.

Among the details that came out during the committee’s investigation were that Brennan came forward internally in December 2017 and said Alvarez sexually assaulted her the previous April at a social event for a departing co-worker. Alvarez was nonetheless hired in January 2018.

In March and again in June 2018, Murphy’s chief of staff at the time, Pete Cammarano, and counsel Matt Platkin told Alvarez that he should leave state government, but he remained in his job, even getting a raise, until October, when the Journal report came out.

"The errors outlined in the preceding sections are, for the most part, attributable not to the inadequacy of existing policies, but rather, failures to adhere to policies; asserted misunderstandings of policies that appear clear on their face; an apparent lack of urgency in addressing Ms. Brennan's concerns; and a lack of common sense," the report said.

The report calls for applying the state’s Equal Employment Oopportunity Act requirements to gubernatorial transitions. Transition staff should hire human resources professionals, the report says.

In January, Brennan sued the state and Alvarez, seeking to scrap the state’s policy requiring victim confidentiality in cases like hers. In March, Alvarez filed a suit of his own, winning an order from a judge seeking prosecutors’ documents.

The Associated Press generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but Brennan came forward publicly in the Journal report and afterward in hearings before the committee.

In February, Murphy announced changes in how the state handles sexual misconduct allegations, applying them to people who work for the new governor in the transition period as well as new job applicants.