CHARLESTON – A Raleigh County woman has sued a former member of the House of Delegates claiming he used his position to request sexual favors for passage of a bill she supported.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, filed her complaint February 27 in Kanawha Circuit Court against former Delegate Austin Haynes and the West Virginia Legislature.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff was an unpaid lobbyist and citizen advocate working on passage of a Native American tribal recognition bill in the Legislature. The woman, who is a descendant of the Cheraw tribe and member of the West Virginia Native American Indian Federation, says she has been working on the bill since 2019.
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She says Haynes began sending her Facebook Messenger messages in 2019 about the bill and said he would introduce the bill if he won election in 2020, which he did.
She says she and Haynes exchanged phone numbers and spoke regularly about the bill during the 2020 session, but he never introduced the bill as promised. During the 2021 session, she says Haynes continuously sent her text messages promising support of the bill.
In January 2021, she says Haynes began sending her text messages asking if she had a boyfriend. She says he continued asking her personal questions and became gradually more inappropriate with her. She says he asked her if she ever used sex toys or masturbated.
“Plaintiff attempted to redirect the conversations back to the bill and rarely answered any of defendant’s questions,” the complaint states. “When plaintiff responded to defendant Haynes, she would reply ‘LOL’ or redirect the conversation back to legislation.”
She says Haynes’ inappropriate messaging escalated in late February and early March 2021. The complaint includes one conversation in which Haynes tells the plaintiff he had masturbated to orgasm looking at a picture of the plaintiff. He also asked her what she thought of his admission and if she ever masturbated. She says she didn’t respond to Haynes, who apologized the next day.
Still, she says Haynes continued to send her inappropriate messages and even called her in the middle of the night and was silent until the call ended. He messaged her to say he “got off” when she answered the phone. In March 2021, she says Haynes send her photos of his penis.
“Haynes told plaintiff on several occasions that constituents would exchange sexual intercourse for bill passage,” the complaint states, then including a text conversation between the plaintiff and Haynes in which he asks her if she would have sex with someone “for them to support your bill if it was very important to u?” She replied, “Nope.”
The next day, she says Haynes messaged her to say he “wasn’t insinuating that you sleep around to get the bill passed. I was just telling you what happens in Charleston sometimes …”
Still, she says Haynes continued to send her text messages mentioning quid pro quo throughout the 2021 session in exchange for favorite treatment of the bill.
Also in March, Haynes texted the plaintiff to say he “got laid two nights ago by another delegate” and that “she was screaming for more. Laying on my desk at the capitol.” When the plaintiff replied “TMI lol,” Haynes replied by saying the other delegate had a very intense orgasm “all over me.”
The complaint says Haynes used his position to influence quid pro quo for bill passage and continually harassed the plaintiff by sending unwanted messages that were sexual in nature despite her requests to keep their relationship strictly professional.
She says Haynes violated the West Virginia Computer Crime and Abuse Act and the West Virginia Human Rights Act. She says Haynes and his actions caused her severe emotional distress.
She seeks compensatory damages for embarrassment, humiliation, annoyance, inconvenience, aggravation, loss of dignity, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress and mental angish. She also seeks punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees and court costs.
She is being represented by Stephen P. New and Emilee B. Withrow of New Taylor & Associates in Beckley. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard after Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers asked to be recused from the case.
Haynes, a Republican, was running for re-election last year when these claims first were reported by local media, which later reported about more women coming forward with similar allegations against Haynes. He lost his re-election bid in November.
New declined comment on the case, but House Speaker Roger Hanshaw questioned having the House included in the complaint.
“What former Delegate Haynes is accused of doing is reprehensible in every way," Hanshaw (R-Clay) told The West Virginia Record. "This complaint, however, is neither appropriate nor is it accurate. The joinder of the Legislature attempted with this complaint is frivolous.
"I want any victims of these alleged crimes to see justice, but it will never be served in the manner sought by the filing of this complaint.”
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-171
