Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R)
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Derbes resigns from the AG’s office accusing AG Jeff Landry of retaliating against him for reporting alleged sexual misconduct by former top aide Pat Magee.
Debres’ Attorney Jill Craft says after reporting alleged harassment and sexism towards other workers Landry retaliated by denying Derbes a promotion, taking away most of his job duties, and then opening an investigation into Derbes.
“Look no further than the Attorney General’s Office issuing some kind of weird memo last week accusing Matthew of violating policy and all but naming him. Naming his position, his gender, everything else. Frankly, that’s unheard of,” said Craft.
Craft said Derbes first reported the harassment in 2019 to his superiors, spoke with other administrators about it, and then finally submitted the allegations in an email.
“Nothing ever happened, nothing was done, and the actions of the Attorney General’s Office was really to turn a blind eye and not acknowledge that there was a problem,” said Craft.
After an investigation by a third party, Magee was placed on leave without pay to start 2021 and had his pay docked. The investigation reported Magee made inappropriate comments but did not support claims of a toxic, sexist workplace environment. Magee resigned in March, in his resignation letter he said “recent false and unjust allegations against me” had become a distraction.
Derbes also claims the Attorney General showed political preferential treatment for a person who was facing 20 counts of child porn. As of Tuesday Landry said he was not aware of the accusation.
Landry said while an investigation did find Magee made inappropriate comments his behavior did not rise to the level of sexual misconduct and the kind of toxic workplace that was being described by Derbes. He said if it had, one of the alleged victims would’ve filed suit.
“In today’s litigious, social media, open communication world, if the environment that has been portrayed out there had existed, that would not be the case,” said Landry, who also pointed to past incidents involving Derbes that he felt put Derbes credibility into question.
AG’s Office HR Director Sandra Schober said she investigated Derbes claims and found claims that jobs and workspaces were withheld or assigned based on women’s looks to be false, and said they were ”believed to have been fabricated to form a narrative.”
Derbes has filed an EEOC discrimination complaint. Craft says it’s the first step towards filing a retaliation claim.
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