Tennessee House Expels One Of Its Own After Sexual Misconduct Allegations

State Rep. Jeremy Durham awaits the start of a House Republican Caucus meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. Durham announced that he would withdraw from the GOP caucus to avoid distractions amid a... State Rep. Jeremy Durham awaits the start of a House Republican Caucus meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. Durham announced that he would withdraw from the GOP caucus to avoid distractions amid a sexual harassment investigation. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig) MORE LESS
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The Tennessee House on Tuesday voted to expel state Rep. Jeremy Durham (R), two months after a damning report detailed numerous women’s accounts of Durham’s sexual harassment and inappropriate contact.

The state house voted 70-2 to expel Durham in a special legislative session, The Tennessean reported

Durham spoke to his colleagues in the state house on Tuesday, noting that he has not been formally charged for his actions. He called the report about his actions issued by the state attorney general in July “anonymous hearsay,” and he denied sexually harassing anyone, according to The Tennessean.

He also sent his colleagues a letter on Monday arguing that the actions detailed in the July report do not “remotely fit any definition of sexual harassment.”

The report issued by the state attorney general in July included accounts of sexual harassment and inappropriate physical contact from 22 women. The accounts show that Durham often harassed women who worked in or with the legislature over text message and sometimes tried to get them alone.

Following the report, Durham suspended his re-election campaign, but he did not resign from the legislature. The speaker of the state House, Rep. Beth Harwell, in July called for a special session to expel Durham so that he could not receive retirement benefits.

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  1. Avatar for mrf mrf says:

    None were teenagers? Tennessee must be evolving. Good to see them expel this man. Wonder who the two no votes were?

  2. Avatar for tao tao says:

    Old white guy plays happy grab ass and acts surprised that consequences are involved.

  3. WHY do so many of these sleezy bastids turn out to be Republicans? (Anthony Weiner notwithstanding)

    ‘Durham wrote to a federal judge in 2014 seeking a more lenient sentence for Bedford County Baptist youth pastor Joseph Todd Neill who was convicted of on federal charges of possessing child pornography (Neill had also pleaded guilty to two state counts of statutory rape by an authority figure, and as part of Neill’s federal plea deal, he admitted to initiating a sexual relationship on more than two occasions with a minor who was a member of the church where he was a youth minister). Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey called the move “poor judgment.”’

  4. This little prick threatened to reveal the names of the women he sexually harassed if he got expelled. Okay, knock yourself out.

  5. Fox News is hiring, you’d be a natural…

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