Albany

A former top aide to state Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, who will take office Monday as Rensselaer County executive, alleges that she was pressured by the lawmaker to retract her accusation that he had roughed her up during a heated argument at his residence in early August.

The aide's disclosure that she had to "save" McLaughlin's political career comes as the Times Union has confirmed the state Assembly's Ethics and Guidance Committee is reviewing a complaint about his treatment of the staff member, Jennifer Polaro, including his use of vulgar language in apparent violation of the Legislature's harassment policy.

Following the Aug. 7 argument at McLaughlin's residence, the aide recorded a conversation in which she could be heard telling the assemblyman: "You put your hands on me for the last time today. ... Did you ever think I was going to let you beat me up and get away with it?"

Minutes after the argument, Polaro sent a series of text messages to McLaughlin, 53, that included a close-up photograph that showed apparent bruises and small cuts near her ear. She also took a separate photograph of several deep scratches on her chest below her right shoulder.

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"Awesome job Steve!!! Awesome. Mild concussion. Where would you like me to send the paper work," she wrote, according to a copy of the text messages obtained by the Times Union. "Not to mention the 2 tears in my earlob (sic). Along with multiple scratch and bruises."

"No clue what you are talking about," McLaughlin wrote back.

"Are you serious?!!" she responded. "You know exactly what I'm talking about ... beating the shit out of me."

In one of the recordings in which she alleged he had attacked her, McLaughlin responded: "I didn't touch you. I didn't (expletive) touch you."

"You didn't? My earring shows different," she says.

A few hours after the incident, on the afternoon of Aug. 7, Polaro sent a text message to Nicholas Wilock, director of press operations for the Assembly's Republican minority conference, informing him that McLaughlin "attacked me today and I'm pressing charges on him," according to a copy of the message obtained by the Times Union.

"Ok," Wilock responded, according to a text message on his account.

The chamber's harassment policy states that employees and members are expected to "report all incidents of discrimination or harassment, regardless of the offender's identity or position."

Wilock, who formerly worked for McLaughlin as a chief of staff, said he could not recall the text, did not report the incident, and that for about a year he has deleted her texts without reading them.

"She's controversial," he said. "Her business is none of my business. ... I certainly may have replied 'ok,' but a two-letter response like that was probably the extent of any response that she has received from me in a long, long time."

Polaro declined to comment for this story. She has been on extended medical leave from her Assembly job since mid-August. The Times Union had previously not published her name because she was an alleged victim of physical abuse and sexual harassment. But Polaro revealed herself recently when she posted public comments on Twitter. McLaughlin is leaving his Assembly position after being narrowly elected in November as Rensselaer County executive. He previously acknowledged using vulgar language directed at Polaro, but denied that he assaulted her.

McLaughlin did not respond to a request for comment on Friday afternoon. His spokesman, Richard Crist, issued a statement on his behalf questioning Polaro's credibility.

"The person in question stated in an interview to the Times Union that she had not been harmed, and in a tape recording of a subsequent conversation, denied there had been any harm and said she had made up the allegations to gain an advantage in the workplace," the statement reads. "We will not participate in the politics of personal destruction or dishonest and false attacks."

Another record obtained by the Times Union indicates that Polaro sent McLaughlin a text message on Sept. 9, threatening that she was going to pursue criminal charges against him.

"I will be pressing charges against you for assault," she wrote in the text, although she never filed criminal charges. "I have every recording and I also have the video of you having me pinned down. ... I also have the recording of you telling me I have to make a false statement of baiting you to save your ass."

In a subsequent text message from Polaro to McLaughlin in late August, she accused him of coercing her into retracting her allegation of physical abuse or facing the threat of a potential extortion charge.

"I did not do that Jen ... Relax," McLaughlin wrote back, according to a copy of the text message. "Did not make you out to be psycho at all. I seriously cannot believe you are mad. It'll pass in one day."

Polaro made similar allegations — that McLaughlin allegedly told her she needed to "take a bullet" for him — in a more recent tweet that was later deleted.

The Aug. 7 incident between McLaughlin and Polaro took place a month before he won a hotly contested Republican primary for county executive against then-Deputy County Executive Chris Meyers.

The Assembly's Ethics Committee can investigate the conduct of a member for up to a year after they leave office.

Last month, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie announced that McLaughlin — a member of the Assembly since 2011 — had been sanctioned for his actions in an unrelated June 2016 incident in which another female Assembly aide accused him of asking her to provide nude photos. The alleged incident took place on the floor of the Assembly chamber. McLaughlin continues to deny those allegations as well.

Polaro's case is unrelated to that matter.

In a series of recent tweets on her account, Polaro claimed that McLaughlin had urged her to retract her story of physical abuse at the end of August, as the Times Union was about to publish a story on her allegations of abuse and his use of vulgar language.

Crist, McLaughlin's campaign director and spokesman, came to the newspaper Aug. 31 with a secretly recorded telephone conversation between McLaughlin and Polaro. Crist claimed the aide had recanted the abuse allegation during the conversation, which he said he had recorded earlier that day with McLaughlin's assistance.

Her recent tweet seemed to cast doubt on the veracity of that recording.

"I was the victim of verbal and physical abuse by Steve," the former aide said in the tweet. "Then I had to lie and retract my story to save him. ... I kept quiet too long!"

The Ethics Committee declined to investigate the woman's abuse allegations when they were first published Sept. 1 by the Times Union. The use of vulgar language is a violation of the Assembly's ethics code, which prohibits "obscene comments" or comments about a person's "deficiencies."

It's unclear whether the committee's examination of a recent complaint that was filed on behalf of Polaro by someone close to her will trigger a formal investigation.

On one of the recordings made by Polaro — among four incendiary conversations between the assemblyman and his aide that had been obtained by the Times Union — he said to her: "You're still fat. You are. Not attractive — and you're a (expletive) awful human being."

McLaughlin, who lives in Troy, has referred to the Times Union's story about his recorded conversations with his longtime aide as "a hatchet job," although he issued a statement in late August saying he had apologized to Polaro for his remarks.

"(The aide) and I have worked together for seven years, and she continues to be a member of my staff," he said at the time. "Like many co-workers, we have had arguments. During our time working together, I have wrongly said things to her, and have apologized to her for statements I made to her."

In the recording made in late August by Crist, McLaughlin pressed her about her statements to the Times Union regarding the Aug. 7 argument at his residence.

"We have an argument and I'm sick and I (expletive) snap a little bit," McLaughlin said to her on the recording made by Crist. "You record it wrongly, it's out of context."

"I baited you," she told him. "I was mad at you because I thought I was losing my job ... and I figured that would save my job."

"So that's basically extortion — you know that, right?" McLaughlin said.

In August, McLaughlin said that Polaro would remain on his Assembly payroll despite his allegation that she was extorting him.

"I think sometimes she was just a little bit hot-headed, maybe," he said at the time. "I don't think you just cut people off."

blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @brendan_lyonstu