By R.G. DUNLOP and RYLAND BARTON
Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting
When a Kentucky legislative staffer first threatened to file suit over alleged sexual harassment, she sent a letter that laid out the specifics of her claim: that then-House Speaker Jeff Hoover made sexual comments and repeatedly groped her without her consent.
The woman, called Jane Doe in some court documents, said in the October 2017 letter that she was living in fear due to alleged harassment by Hoover and three other lawmakers. She and her attorney offered to negotiate, confidentially. By the next week, Hoover, other lawmakers and a Republican staffer had secretly settled with Doe for $110,000.
Hoover’s attorneys have fought to keep the demand letter, a document that states a legal claim, out of the public record, and it has never been released. But the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and Kentucky Public Radio obtained a copy of the document.