ALBANY – The state’s ethics panel has closed its investigation into former state Sen. Jeff Klein without substantiating allegations that he forcibly kissed a staffer a decade ago.
The Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, in a 5-2 vote, found there was “sufficient evidence” to determine Klein kissed then-staffer Erica Vladimer “without her consent” in 2015, the panel said in a letter released Friday.
Due to a number of vacancies of the panel and a quirk in state law, at least six members needed to vote in favor in order to agree to substantiate the allegation, so it failed.
An administrative judge also concluded Klein did not kiss Vladimer.
Former state Sen. Jeff Klein said he did not kiss a then-staffer against her will in an Albany bar in 2015. AP
Klein, who lost his Bronx seat in 2018, the year he asked the ethics body to launch its investigation, hailed the commission’s conclusion as a victory.
“After fighting for nearly a decade to restore his reputation, Senator Klein is grateful that the truth has finally prevailed,” his lawyer, Richard Portale, told The Post.
“This outcome affirms that the accusations against Senator Klein were without merit.”
But Vladimer, who has since gone on to advocate for protections against sexual harassment in state government by founding the group Harassment Free New York, blasted the commission’s decision as “unacceptable and utterly pathetic.”
“A determination should’ve left me feeling vindicated and affirmed. Instead, I am livid and disconsolate,” Vladimer wrote in a statement.
“For more than seven years, I have done everything humanly possible to work within the state ethics system to hold Klein accountable,” she said. “State employees demand better from our public officials and from the oversight body that supposedly governs their conduct.”
Accuser Erica Vladimer said Klein absolutely committed sexual harassment against her. AP
Joseph Neuhaus, the administrative judge who also heard the case, acknowledged the evidence, or lack thereof, made his ruling in Klein’s favor “a close call.”
Klein was accused of kissing Vladimer against her will at Justin’s, a bar in Albany, after the passage of the state budget in 2015.
Nehaus wrote in his report that he didn’t think Klein kissed Vladimer because of the presence of other potential witnesses at the bar that evening, including Klein’s girlfriend, fellow state Sen. Diane Savino.
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The also noted “inconsistency” in Vladimer’s account of the timeline of the evening and the lack of other sexual-harassment allegations against Klein.
“Acknowledging it is a close call, I have, for the reasons stated above, reached the conclusion that the alleged kiss did not occur and that the Commission’s charges therefore lack a substantial basis,” Neuhaus concluded in his report.
Klein had led the once-powerful Independent Democratic Conference, a group of Democratic state senators who conferenced with Republicans in order to give them control over the chamber.
“The matter is now closed. The process played out as prescribed by law and the Commission’s regulations,” COELIG Executive Director Sanford Berland said in a statement of Klein’s case.
“The agency investigated and presented the facts, and the Commission acted based on the record as the process requires.”