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Foxx claims Alvarez looked the other way on harassment by top staffer

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Illinois

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx claims in a new book that her predecessor Anita Alvarez looked the other way despite multiple complaints of sexual harassment against a former division chief in her office.

Foxx is among 17 women from across the Illinois political sphere — including Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia — who detail their experiences of sexual harassment in former Daily Herald reporter Kerry Lester’s book “No, My Place,” which was released Wednesday.

In the book, Foxx tells of “a chief in our division who was known for everything from literally looking up women’s skirts to saying he wanted his own pretty, female intern, to asking a young woman” about performing oral sex.

Foxx says she “lobbied to get this guy fired. Problem was, he was very good friends with the former state’s attorney.”

Ugh.

Click here to buy the book.

* Tribune…

Another woman in Illinois politics, now a state representative, recalled a lobbyist at a fundraiser commenting about her chest, and then shouting the remarks to men at the other end of a table at a bar in the 1990s.

And a commissioner for a government agency said a committeeman at a party in 2013 told her, “I’ve never tasted Chinese p—- before,” according to the book.

Written and self-published by former Daily Herald journalist Kerry Lester as a response to the #MeToo movement, the book contains dozens of stories in the women’s own voices of inappropriate behavior they said they encountered.

“In the more than two dozen interviews I conducted for this book, not a single woman who experienced harassment felt that there were appropriate mechanisms in place to report and address a problem,” Lester said in the book. “Often, she just put up with it, hoping with time the dynamics would change.”

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 1:25 pm

Comments

Ugh id right. Nothing in politics surprises me these days. Maybe a man like that can even become President one of these days.

Comment by Big Joe Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 1:36 pm
The book is a really cool idea–thanks for sharing the link. I just bought a copy and encourage others to do the same to support the effort of putting it together. If you use Amazon Smile, you can even put a hefty five cents of the purchase price to a charity you care about.

Comment by Chris Widger Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 2:03 pm
Hopefully we have the beginnings of that mechanism in place to report and address harassment. And done in a honest, fair manner.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 2:18 pm
Kim Foxx’s claim that she was a victim of sexual harassment just don’t seem credible to me. If she’s saying she knew someone who was, that would be different.

Comment by jim Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 2:23 pm
===Kim Foxx’s claim that she was a victim of sexual harassment just don’t seem credible to me===

Yeah, you know those state’s attorneys. Buncha liars. Especially the black female Democrat ones.

Sheesh.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 2:49 pm
since much of what Foxx claimed about her work in the SAO the first go round was wildly exaggerated during her campaign, this story bears more checking out.

Comment by Amalia Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 3:00 pm
Bought and read last night. Highly recommended.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 3:07 pm
Thank you Kim Foxx for speaking out. This is one more step toward making people aware of this behavior, calling it out as unacceptable, and calling out people who cover it up.

Comment by State worker Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 3:14 pm
I think a few of the comments here just prove how important the #MeToo movement is…we’ve got a LOONG way to go on this.

Comment by Veil of Ignorance Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 4:08 pm
Amalia: with respect, it seems you’re hung up in your skepticism.

Two very different types of claims. Two very different personal motivations. One should not cloud the other.

I certainly believe Kim Foxx in this reporting.

Comment by walker Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 4:50 pm
Walker, it’s just that she was so far off in her descriptions of her work in the office…flat out lies…. that she does not have credibility as a witness.

Comment by Amalia Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 4:58 pm
I bet none of the perps referred to in the book is named Ira.

Comment by anon2 Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 5:06 pm
I’ve heard similar things about men in the CCSAO before Foxx said anything. So, yeah, it’s a credible statement.

Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 8:36 pm
Amelia - When you call it “the office” leads me to believe you were there. Although probably should be “The Office.” And remember, “Do the right thing, and don’t embarrass The Office.”

Comment by West Side the Best Side Thursday, Feb 1, 18 @ 10:02 pm