美国国家公共电台 NPR Federal Housing Agency Employee Secretly Taped Director's Sexual Advances Toward Her

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The director of a national regulatory agency has been accused of sexual harassment¹. His name is Melvin Watt², and he heads up the Federal Housing Finance Agency. An employee there named Simone Grimes claims that Watt harassed³ her, denied her equal pay and tried to retaliate⁴ against her. And she says she has the tapes to prove it. Grimes has provided NPR parts of her recordings⁵. NPR's Yuki Noguchi has the story.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE⁶: In 2015, Simone Grimes started working two jobs, hers plus the one she'd been promoted to. But she never got the pay increase she'd been promised. After nine months, she was told a raise would require sign-off from the director.

SIMONE GRIMES: That's kind of when Director Watt began his advances. So he, you know, approached me at a few functions that were at work to say he believed there was an attraction between us that needed to be explored.

NOGUCHI: Grimes, who is in her early 40s, kept asking to have her pay match that of her predecessor⁷. Each time, she was told the decision was Watt's. In May, Grimes filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and, yesterday, also filed a lawsuit⁸ against the housing agency for alleged⁹ violations¹⁰ of the Equal Pay Act.

Watt is one of the few holdovers from the Obama administration. He's denied the allegations and faces multiple investigations¹¹. In a statement last month, Watt said, quote, "the selective leaks related to this matter are obviously intended to embarrass or to lead to an unfounded or political conclusion." But Grimes says conversations she recorded on her cellphone over the last year and a half prove otherwise.

GRIMES: I was doing two jobs, and I was being paid about 70 cents per dollar to my predecessor, who was only doing one of those jobs. And so I was simply asking to right that.

NOGUCHI: She declined to provide a full transcript¹² but says the recordings, which were included in her EEOC complaint, verify her claims that Watt held up her pay raise as he pressed her to consider a relationship. In November 2016, she says Watt asked her to meet.

GRIMES: He wanted that conversation to occur not on the premises¹³.

NOGUCHI: She reluctantly agreed to meet at his house, where she recorded him.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MELVIN WATT: I'm guilty of having an attraction to you. That is true. So it makes me more conscious not to leave some impression.

NOGUCHI: She says Watt mentioned possibilities of other senior roles that came with higher pay, including that of chief operating officer.

GRIMES: My comment to him is those sound fine. I believe I'm qualified¹⁴, but I want to make sure there's no strings¹⁵ attached, you're not expecting anything in return. And his response was...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WATT: I can certainly draw the line knowing that this - what I've talked to you about up to this point has nothing to do with either your beauty or my feelings.

NOGUCHI: Grimes says he repeatedly emphasized that he had the power to grant her what she sought.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WATT: Is it better to go through a charade¹⁶ process to get you the job, or is it better for me just to give you the job? - because I don't have to go through a big process. I don't have to go through an application process.

GRIMES: And it didn't end there. You know, he would make comments about my looks, about what I'm wearing. It was always front and center.

NOGUCHI: Grimes says she still reports to the very people she's accusing in her complaints and says they've retaliated¹⁷ against her.

GRIMES: I have continued to endure this position and try to see it through to the end and be clear with the agency that they're not knocking the wind out of me. I'm not losing my stride. I will continue with this because I work there, and I know I'm not the only person.

NOGUCHI: The agency and Watt declined comment about the recordings. Watt's five-year term as head of the agency expires in January next year.

Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)