Speaker Resigns Amid Sexual Harrassment Allegations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 13, 2002
NEWS CONTACT: Joe Glover – 804-419-4483

Amherst, VA ““ The Speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates has resigned nearly a week after it was revealed that he paid a 26 year-old female to hide her allegations that he sexual assaulted her last year.

According to sources quoted in The Washington Post, House Speaker Vance S. Wilkins, Jr. (R) “paid at least $100,000 last year to settle a sexual harassment complaint by a woman who said he repeatedly made unwelcome advances on her in the warehouse complex where his legislative office was located.”

According to the POST, a 26 year-old clerical worker who was working for a construction company located in the Speaker’s office building in Amherst described a series of unwelcome sexual advances by Wilkins. They included him “groping and pinning her against office furniture.”

Wilkins continues to deny the groping allegation is true. Yet, he doesn’t deny he paid at least $100,000 to require his alleged victim to keep silent on the matter. In a statement released on June 13, Wilkins said, “I don’t blame anyone for my troubles. Most of them I brought upon myself. But times have changed and the rules have changed and what was accepted in the era in which I was raised is strictly off limits today. I didn’t change with the times, and if I have offended anyone I am truly sorry and I apologize.”

FPN President Joe Glover said, “Vance Wilkins has done many things as a legislator and Speaker to keep Virginia’s families strong. Resigning was the only way he could still affirm his commitment to the values he worked so hard to uphold until now.”

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Information related to this story:

Resignation Statement from Vance Wilkins:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47214-2002Jun13.html

The Washington Post on Wilkins’s resignation:
Wilkins Resigns as House Speaker
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47992-2002Jun13.html

Richmond Times-Dispatch on Wilkins’s resignation:
Va. House Speaker resigns in wake of sex scandal
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/vaapwire/MGBN07WCF2D.html

Original Washington Post story:
“Va. Speaker Settles Sex Complaint”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9360-2002Jun6.html

Website of House Speaker Vance S. Wilkins, Jr.
http://www.vancewilkins.com/

Original Richmond Times-Dispatch article:
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/vaapwire/MGBB50XB62D.html