Six figures settled sex harassment claim by former employee
JUNE 20--Trouble just seems to follow this William Kennedy Smith guy. The
Kennedy clan member, who was acquitted of rape in 1991, has recently faced
civil claims for sexually harassing female co-workers at the Chicago
not-for-profit organization he chairs. While a judge this year tossed a
lawsuit filed by his former personal assistant, Smith reportedly paid six
figures in an out-of-court settlement to a second woman who worked for his
Center for International Rehabilitation (CIR). While Laura Hamilton did
not file a lawsuit against Smith, her lawyers last year prepared a 40-page
federal complaint that, absent a settlement, would have landed in U.S.
District Court in Washington, D.C.. Since a TSG source was kind enough to
provide us with a copy of Hamilton's draft complaint, her account of
Smith's remarkably sleazy and scary behavior will not be permanently
cloaked by a subsequent confidentiality agreement. In the excerpt below,
Hamilton describes Smith, a medical doctor, as a creepy predator who
targeted many women who worked for CIR, which describes itself as a
"humanitarian network of individuals and organizations that promotes the
full potential of people with disabilities through education, innovation,
and advocacy." Smith, Hamilton charged, referred to a handicapped man she
dated as "that amputee" and often improperly touched her. When she became
pregnant, Hamilton, who worked at CIR for nearly seven years, said that
Smith frequently entered her office and gave unwanted massages, explaining
that pregnant women "glowed" and he found them "irresistible." She also
recounted attending a 2001 UNICEF conference in New York and bunking in
the "guest apartment" of Smith's mother, Jean Kennedy Smith. On the second
night of Hamilton's stay, Smith showed up unannounced at the apartment and
began massaging her neck and back and stroking her belly. Hamilton, seven
months pregnant at the time, rebuffed Smith when he tried to kiss her.
"Instead of allowing her to leave the room, Dr. Smith continued to rub Ms.
Hamilton's belly, inched his hand below her waist, and stuck his tongue in
her ear. Ms. Hamilton abruptly stood up and rushed out of the room," the
draft states. Hamilton claimed that she barricaded her door that evening,
adding that Smith told her the following morning that "it was all [he]
could do not to come in [her room] last night." During an October 2002
conference in Croatia, Smith "maneuvered himself" into her hotel room and
quickly "produced and unwrapped a condom, making it clear that he had
intended to have sexual intercourse with her," according to Hamilton's
complaint. Fearing for her job and believing that she "had no choice,"
Hamilton "submitted to Dr. Smith's unwelcome sexual advances and felt
degraded and humiliated afterward." Rashida Adams, one of Hamilton's
lawyers, declined to discuss the complaint, saying only that Smith and
Hamilton "have resolved their dispute." Attorney Barbara Brown, who
defended Smith in several sexual harassment matters, told TSG, "I'm not
authorized to speak to you." (23 pages)


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"The Democratic tent has shrunk to the size of a dunce cap. There's no
room for Conservatives like me. We used to have Moderates and
Conservatives in the party. Then they ran us out."


- Sen. Zell Miller