But the incident “didn’t raise with us the idea” that it needed to be reported further, Ms. Forshaw said.

“We’ve told him he should just watch it, and not do that kind of thing,” she said.

The agency had written a memo about the incident, but it would not go in Mr. Kiyonaga’s file. If Ms. Gunning wanted to continue pursuing the complaint, Ms. Forshaw said, she could “make a report of discrimination or retaliation with our affirmative action officer, the Division of Human Rights, the E.E.O.C.

“You could also, I guess, potentially make a workplace violence complaint, if that’s what your concern is,” Ms. Forshaw added.

Under a 10-step procedure devised by the governor’s office for state agencies, internal complaints are supposed to be investigated by an affirmative action officer. But Ms. Gunning said she did not speak to the Justice Center’s affirmative action liaison until after Ms. Forshaw’s call.

Ms. Gunning contacted the liaison herself, and the liaison referred the complaint to the Governor’s Office on Employee Relations. Investigators there, working with the Office of General Services, determined the complaint was “without merit,” according to Christine Buttigieg, a Justice Center spokeswoman. (Ms. Gunning said she was never informed of the results of that investigation.)

Ms. Gunning then approached the governor’s office directly. In an Oct. 26, 2017, letter to Mr. David and the governor’s secretary, Melissa DeRosa, she asked them to review her complaint, offering to share the recorded conversation. Mr. David replied to say he had referred her inquiry to the inspector general.

That investigation is still open. Ms. Gunning said she had heard from the inspector general’s office only twice since October.