A Thurston County employee supervised by County Commissioner Emily Clouse accuses her of engaging in a “pattern of abusive, unwelcome sexual behavior” and firing him 30 minutes after he reported the alleged harassment to the county, according to a letter from an attorney representing the employee that was obtained by The Chronicle.
“The purpose of this letter is to place the County on notice regarding (client’s) claims and to formally notify the county of our representation of (client) regarding the matter addressed here within,” Edward Earl Younglove III, an attorney at Younglove, Coker and Rhodes, wrote in a letter to the county.
Maia Robbins, an attorney at Seattle-based law firm Corr Cronin who is representing Clouse, told The Chronicle Thursday that the letter is “simply leveraging untruthful allegations to capitalize on Thurston County taxpayers.”
“As stated by the Chair of the Board of Commissioners on September 3, the County’s third-party investigation confirmed that the inflammatory claims made against Commissioner Clouse were unsubstantiated,” Robbins wrote Thursday. “This attorney’s letter, sent two days later, does not turn those claims into fact.”
Robbins has said the complaint under investigation “concerns the demise of a garden-variety workplace dating relationship.”
Younglove did not respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment on Thursday. In the letter, Younglove wrote his client was “prepared to discuss a reasonable resolution of his claims, or if that is not possible, to file a claim for damages and a lawsuit if necessary.”
The letter from Younglove was sent approximately three weeks after Clouse was removed from her county board and commission assignments and a week after the Thurston County Commissioners received a “preliminary verbal report” of a third-party workplace investigation.
In a joint statement on Sept. 6, Clouse’s fellow commissioners said “the accusations made against Commissioner Clouse were extremely concerning.”
“The initial verbal report from the investigator ruled out some aspects of these accusations; however, there remain questions from the Board about Commissioner Clouse’s judgment and conduct as it relates to the details of the situation," the board said in the statement signed by Commissioners Tye Menser, Wayne Fournier, Carolina Mejia and Gary Edwards.
According to the commissioners’ statement, the board will release a final written report once it’s completed.
“The Board appreciates the patience of the public and staff as it works through what has become a very distracting situation,” the joint statement reads.
Robbins has said Clouse could pursue legal action against her fellow commissioners if she is not reinstated to the boards and commissions where she represents the county.
In the Sept. 5 letter addressed to Jane Futterman, a Thurston County deputy prosecuting attorney, Younglove wrote that as a direct supervisor, Clouse’s conduct became “increasingly lewd and unwelcome.”
“Although leaked reports have talked about consensual conduct between the two, and specifically as to (client), that is not the legal test and it does not equate with the suggestion that Commissioner Clouse’s conduct was ‘welcomed,’” Younglove wrote.
Younglove wrote: “The conduct of Commissioner Clouse directed toward (client) became increasingly lewd and unwelcome during his employment with the County. The nature of some of that conduct is preserved in text messages and video.”
According to the letter, Clouse’s conduct created both a “hostile work environment” and “qualifies as quid pro quo sexual harassment.”
Noting a “power imbalance” between Clouse and the employee, the attorney wrote that his client has repeatedly stated “he had to do what Commissioner Clouse asked ‘in order to keep his job.’”
According to the letter, the employee received a termination letter signed by Clouse within 30 minutes of advising the county’s human resources department of the alleged harassment on July 26.
“A few days later, on July 29, 2024, during a conversation with ranking County officials, (client) was asked what amount of money it would take for him to keep quiet about his allegations of harassment by Commissioner Clouse,” Younglove wrote.
In the letter, Younglove wrote the inquiry “itself was a violation” of state law. According to the employee, he was placed on administrative leave soon after this interaction, which made him the “object of conjecture that he had engaged in some wrongdoing.”
A Democrat, Clouse was elected to the Thurston County Board of Commissioners with 59.9% of the vote during the 2023 election. Clouse was sworn in during a November 2023 commissioners meeting.
