A Vermont district attorney is facing calls for his resignation after several women stepped forward to accuse the embattled politician of egregious verbal abuse and sexually demeaning speech.
John Lavoie, who has served as district attorney for Vermont’s Franklin County, has faced increasingly vehement calls to resign after a litany of accusations concerning his workplace conduct, particularly with regard to females.
Lavoie stands accused of repeatedly berating female colleagues with derogatory language, including pejoratives such as “whore” and “slut-bag.” Lavoie’s colorful vocabulary also includes liberal use of the c-word “on a regular basis,” according to reports.
It has also been claimed that Lavoie showed a particular interest in the subject of his female employees’ weight, in one incicident saying “I don’t think you need to eat lunch today,” to a colleague while pinching her torso. He also disparaged users of Peloton exercise bikes, claiming that such machinery was “for fat people” and suggesting that his interlocutor was one such person. However, lest he be taken for a mean-spirited brute, Lavoie also allegedly demonstrated his capacity for complimenting his female colleagues, when he told one that she had “magnificent boobs.”
Perhaps the most bizarre and ribald allegation against Lavoie is the claim that he once wiped his anus with a photo of one colleague’s boyfriend, remarking that the man “looked like a woman.”
The Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs released a statement earlier this month calling on Lavoie to resign in light of the allegations against him.
‘Multiple allegations made by employees of the Office of the Franklin County State’s Attorney were found credible and were substantiated, including additional incidents not initially disclosed,” the department said in its statement. “There is credible evidence to conclude that State’s Attorney Lavoie engaged in the maltreatment of employees through repeated discriminatory comments and actions including but not limited to derogatory references to national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability and body composition. Further, at least two instances of unwanted physical contact, not of a sexual nature, were substantiated.”
“We’ve talked to the women involved and it’s really difficult to hear some of the situations that occurred knowing that there’s not much we can do to prevent the individual to be in that position to continue acting like they have,” the department’s executive director John Campbell added in a statement.
Lavoie has admitted that some of his remarks were “inappropriate,” but the DA has so far resisted the suggestion that his workplace behavior should merit his resignation. As the outrage over Lavoie’s behavior continues to grow, the embattled DA may find it impossible to execute his job amid the growing controversy which surrounds his office.
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