Greg Graves is a first-term Utah County commissioner who has been accused of sexual harassment
A Utah public official who has been accused of sexual harassment was previously investigated for spanking a high school girl when he worked as a teacher.
Greg Graves, a first-term commissioner in Utah County, worked as a teacher at Alta High School in Sandy and as part of his tenure served as an adviser to the business and marketing club, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
He accompanied students in the club to an overnight leadership conference in 2012, sources told the newspaper.
While performing bed checks – in essence, making sure the students were in their designated hotel rooms – he apparently spanked at least one female student, sources told the Tribune.
He was a first-year teacher and so had started in September 2012.
It is not clear exactly when the conference was, but he was placed on paid administrative leave on October 15 and resigned from his position on December 13 – meaning he had worked at the school for less than four months.
While working as a teacher at Alta High School in Sandy, Utah in 2012, he allegedly spanked a female student during an overnight school trip. He was performing bed checks to make sure students were in their hotel rooms at the time
The Tribune reports that there is no disciplinary misconduct indicated on Graves’s teaching record and that he proceeded to teach at a charter school less than two years after resigning from Alta High.
Graves left the teaching profession to become the commissioner for Utah County – the second most populous in the state.
He ran as a Republican and did not have a Democratic opponent.
Seventeen Utah County state lawmakers have now signed a letter asking him to resign in the face of a sexual harassment complaint and widespread office misconduct.
The Deseret News reports the letter signed by 17 of the 22 legislators whose districts cover at least part of Utah County cites explosive and vulgar behavior by Graves.
According to the letter, there is a sheer volume of evidence of Graves’ negative behavior including a county investigator’s report, public account and first-person testimony.
County leaders also released a 100-page sexual harassment complaint against Graves last week.
The letter says the legislators see Graves as a bully and as a result ‘have lost all confidence’ in his ability to serve in a public office.
Seventeen of the 22 legislators whose districts cover at least part of Utah County have called for Graves’s resignation in the face of both the sexual harassment complaint and an additional complaint from multiple previous colleagues alleging incidents of explosive and vulgar behavior
The sexual harassment complaint claims that Graves rubbed the upper leg of a female employee and spoke of his unhappiness with his marriage and asked her if she would date a divorced man, the Tribune reports.
The complaint further alleges that after the female employee told higher-ups of the harassment and was moved to a different supervisor, Graves continued the harassment and also engaged in a campaign of intimidation.
In the broader complaint of inappropriate conduct, male and female employees spoke of bullying tactics such as name-calling and screaming.
The alleged harasser also apparently has filed for bankruptcy multiple times.
Graves has dismissed the complaints and says he will not resign; however, he has not commented publicly on the matters for at least one week.