‘Resolution’ to censure Halloran for comments filed after legislative harassment probe

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include new developments.

LINCOLN — Deeming a legislative investigation a “slow walk,” a resolution was filed late Wednesday seeking to censure State Sen. Steve Halloran for interjecting a senator’s name while reading about a  violent rape.

Such a censure resolution would involve a public hearing to air the complaints and, if the resolution was advanced, a vote by the entire Legislature.

Halloran, during floor debate broadcast to the public Monday night, read the graphic account of a rape while interjecting the name “Senator Cavanaugh” several times during the reading, which included a demand for oral sex.

The incident, labeled as aggressive and hurtful by some senators, has drawn national publicity.

Halloran, of Hastings, has said his comments were an attempt to make people listen to his speech and that any outrage should not be directed at him, but at the profane book he read, which is available in some school libraries.

The incident prompted State Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island, who chairs the Legislature’s Executive Board, to announce Wednesday morning that he had personally launched an investigation under the Legislature’s workforce harassment policy against Halloran. The investigation must be completed within 45 days.

But Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, along with Dunbar Sen. Julie Slama — who have both said they have been victimized by sexual violence — said the legislative investigation was inadequate and wouldn’t allow the Halloran comments to be addressed until after the 2024 session ends in April.

Some of the disciplinary options, Slama said, would not be available after the Legislature adjourns.

The Legislature has three options to punish a lawmaker under its policies: to issue a letter of reprimand, to censure the lawmaker or to expel the lawmaker. A censure is a statement of “extreme disapproval” of a senator’s conduct or actions.

“We don’t need an investigation,” Slama said. “It only serves to slow walk this and sweep it under the rug.”

Cavanaugh said Halloran’s reading of “vulgar … pornography” on the floor of the Legislature had “harmed me in ways that I have yet to fully process.”

Read like demanding a sex act

“It was read in a way like he was demanding me to perform a sex act on him,” the senator said. “What happened on Monday night was disgusting and offensive to me.”

Cavanaugh said that a hearing on a censure resolution would help avoid “further victimization, further traumatizing” of sexual assault victims.

“This body should stand up for decency,” she said.

Slama said the Legislature’s current workforce harassment policies — updated only a year ago — were “completely inadequate” and regularly make the Unicameral “a national joke.”

The resolution states that Halloran “should be censured and condemned for conduct that rises to the level of harassment and hostility to fellow members of the Legislature….”

Later Wednesday, Halloran said that constitutional questions have been raised about the free speech protections for state senators when giving floor speeches. He said he has talked to the attorney general about getting a legal opinion on that issue.

He made it clear he isn’t going to resign but added that “in hindsight, I should have just read from the (book) transcript” and asked senators afterwards to take note of what was read.

The Legislature’s Reference Committee is slated to meet Thursday morning and likely refer the censure resolution to the Executive Board for a public hearing. Such a hearing would be held within a week.

Earlier Wednesday, Aguilar said he wanted to clear up the “inaccuracies” that no action was being explored against Halloran for his statements.

“This could not be further from the truth,” Aguilar said, adding that he initiated a complaint “the first thing” on Tuesday morning.

“This formal investigation will be thorough and by the book,” the senator said.

Halloran declined to comment after the announcement on the floor of the Legislature, except to say that Aguilar was in violation of a policy that made such investigations confidential.

Cavanaugh said she was upset that she, and others at whom Halloran’s comments were directed, were not consulted before Aguilar’s announcement.

‘Public nature’ of comments

Aguilar, during his announcement, said that because Halloran’s comments came during floor debate that was broadcast by Nebraska Public Media, it was determined that the confidentiality requirement no longer applied.

He added that given the “public nature” of the comments, he expected the final report to be shared with all state senators, as well as with the public.

Aguilar said he launched the investigation Tuesday morning, and under the Legislature’s workplace harassment rules, he appointed a panel of three state senators to investigate the comments. That panel, whose members were not disclosed, met Tuesday, he said.

That panel will hire an outside investigator and, under the rules, must report its finding within 45 days.

Aguilar said it was important “that all members of the Legislature and legislative staff” feel safe in the workplace and that all complaints will be taken seriously.

The Hastings senator, who is term-limited from running for re-election, has said what he read was an example of the kinds of obscene literature available in some school libraries.

He insisted later that he was referring to State Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha, rather than his sister, fellow Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh.

But several senators considered the speech an aggressive affront to a fellow senator and said the reading revived troubling memories of sexual violence they, or their families, had endured.

A year ago, the Legislature updated its workplace harassment policies in the wake of a scandal involving then-Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte.

Groene had taken photos of one of his female staff members without her knowledge.

Groene resigned, and later, a seven-week investigation concluded that his behavior was “boorish, brainless and bizarre,” but not illegal.