A rather sordid chapter in Willie Brown's political career is winding up in San Diego's Superior Court this month in the sexual harassment trial again of former-Assemblyman Tom Connolly (D-Lemon Grove). This is a tale of "Willie's World" at its worst.

Five years ago, San Diego-area attorney, Tom Connolly, ran for the Assembly as a Democrat in a traditionally conservative district. Tom Connolly had a record of drug abuse and failure to make child support payments; the press focused instead on his Republican opponent's conservative views. In victory, Connolly was heralded as one of the "miracle eight" of the 1992 Assembly--one of eight wunderkind Democratic victories in conservative areas.

According to Dena Holman, Connolly's former chief-of-staff and plaintiff in the current harassment suit, Connolly constantly made lewd comments about his own sexual habits and interrogated Holman and two junior women staffers about their personal lives. He allegedly discussed incidents with prostitutes and described his wife's body in graphic detail. The Assembly settled the suits of the two junior staffers for $100,000 a piece; Holman refused to settle.

Connolly pleads not guilty to the charges of harassment and the Court will ultimately have to decide his guilt or innocence. Harassment cases are always volatile but this case in particular is thick with deception. In April of 1994, Holman and the two junior staffers reported their boss's antics to the Assembly Rules Committee, in accordance with the Assembly's sexual harassment policy. In charge of the investigation was Assembly lawyer Nina Ryan, a Brown appointee whose husband was a law partner with Brown's San Francisco firm. As the Assembly's counsel, Ryan was charged with investigating the harassment and discrimination charges, and then, representing the accused Member, Tom Connolly.

Many have pointed to the conflicting interests of unbiased investigation on one hand and protecting the Members on the other (throw in the political climate of 1994 when the former Speaker of the Assembly was fighting to protect his fiefdom) and the scene was ripe for subterfuge.

In fact, the evidence of the deception is in Ryan's own handwriting. Notes from briefings with then-Speaker Brown before the investigation was complete indicate that the Speaker wanted the lid kept on the story of Connolly's harassment. According to the pretrial testimony, initial drafts of Ryan's report suggest she believed Connolly needed a crash course in sexual harassment training. However, in the final report, Ryan brands the three women as "despicable liars" and says no harassment occurred. Despite Ryan's turnaround, the Assembly agreed to pay the two junior staffers $200,000 of public money to settle their cases.

Connolly was clearly a politically useful, if sleazy, pawn in Speaker Willie's master chess game. Keeping Connolly's seat safe was imperative. Brown told the San Diego Court he accepted the women's resignations--but his signature is on their termination papers. Willie's Speakership depended in part on Connolly's reelection and so the Speaker, champion of the downtrodden, embarked on a campaign of suppression and retaliation against the three women in the Connolly case.

Californians have tended to ignore Slick Willie's antics with a wink and a nudge, but the evidence in the Holman case suggests "Da Mayor" went too far. It's easy to do the right thing when it helps your career. It's time for the truth to catch up with the man heralded as the protector of the "little people": This emperor is wearing no clothes.

-by Katherine Post, Public Policy Fellow