Assistant who received messages described the behavior as 'disgusting,' said it gives her the 'nastiest freaking feeling in the world'

Cheraina Bonner woke up last Christmas morning to a video text message of what looked to be her boss drunkenly serenading her.

Jeff Maultsby, the chief operating officer for the Sarasota County School District, was in what appears to be a ballroom or reception hall, singing along with the 1982 funk song “The Man is Home Tonight,” letting Bonner know he was thinking of her.

“Ms. Raina! I’m in the haven — (singing) ‘The man is home tonight,’” Maultsby said in a video message he sent at 1:08 a.m. on Dec. 25. “Here I am Ms. Raina. I ain’t gonna show you what I’m doing. I’m just gonna talk to you.”

It was one of 831 text messages exchanged between the school district’s second-ranking administrator, who was hired last year, and Bonner, his new administrative assistant. Before the Christmas morning video, he had sent her kissy-face emojis and flirted with her, according to the texts obtained through a public records request from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. She said she debated how to handle his approach — ignoring him at times and playing along with an "LOL" at other times. But she said she was disgusted by her boss's approach to her in the texts.

“Look at the (stuff) he sends me in the middle of the night. That is the nastiest freaking feeling in the world. When I’m at work I think he is looking at me thinking all kinds of stuff,” Bonner said, referring to the Christmas morning video. “You’re drunk and the first thing you are doing is calling me or texting?”

Bonner has filed two complaints against the school district for what she alleges is sexual harassment by Maultsby and a failure to act on the complaints by Superintendent Todd Bowden. She filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s Office as well, alleging Maultsby threatened her when she warned him she would go public with his behavior.

Bowden, who has faced his own accusers saying he sexually harassed them, allegedly did nothing for six weeks after hearing Bonner’s complaints, keeping her in the same position reporting to Maultsby.

Maultsby could not be reached for comment. District spokeswoman Tracey Beeker declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

“It’s this big organization with these top people, and I know at the end of the day I am just this little administrative assistant, and they are going to get rid of me,” Bonner said.

The messages, obtained by the Sheriff's Office following Bonner's complaint about the alleged threat, show Maultsby frequently texting Bonner. He told her about getting drunk, made suggestive jokes and told her he loved her when she seemed to get annoyed.

Frequent contacts



The texts started within two months of Maultsby's hiring by Bowden and the district last year.

Bowden named Maultsby the chief operating officer in June. On Aug. 22, Maultsby texted Bonner saying, “I miss Ms. Raina.” On Sept. 3 at 10:25 p.m. he sent her four "kissy face" emojis, a message he repeated on Dec. 9.

Maultsby communicated with Bonner primarily through his personal cell phone, despite Florida’s Sunshine Law, which requires government officials to use government-issued communication devices when conducting business.

Maultsby frequently joked about being angry if Bonner had to leave work before he saw her.

“NEVER AGAIN,” he texted on Feb. 1.

“What….what happened?” she responded.

“You left me!” Maultsby said. “That’s what happened.”

He told her about getting drunk on March 31, and on April 12 he ignored her repeated requests for information on a work-related question while he was out of town.

“You miss me already?” he said when she responded to his text message.

“No…LOL. It’s work related do you know where the signed waivers are for the position that need to be posted?” Bonner said.

“Yes you do!”

“I do what?”

“Miss me!”

“Waivers?”

“Admit it!”

Maultsby ultimately told her he did not know where the waivers were, more than 20 minutes after she asked the initial question.

Bonner said she felt she had to play along with Maultsby’s texting because if she ignored him or did not engage he would hassle her about it at the office.

“You fake it until you make it. I was trying to figure out how to figure it out,” she said. “… You try to do whatever in order to get them to stop.”

The two would text about football rivalries — Bonner is a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and Maultsby roots for the Oakland Raiders — and he would come back to her remarks by saying “I love you too!” (Nov. 26) or “I love you Raina!” and “I’m saying I love you” (Dec. 9).

When talking about an upcoming Monday Night Football game between the Steelers and Raiders last Dec. 10, Bonner texted that she would call in sick the next day because the Steelers were likely to lose.

She told him he should become a Steelers fan as well so he would get sick, too — a remark Maultsby shifted into a suggestive conversation about how Bonner could potentially get him sick.

“There is another way you do know???” he said.

“Not happening,” she wrote.

Bonner said she didn’t know what to do, so she said she ultimately decided to play to Maultsby’s ego, thanking him for giving her the position and hoping she could parlay his frequent attention into helping her get a better position within the district.

Alleged veiled threat

Bonner said she got to the point where she feared she would lose her job because of stress.

She said that in the spring Maultsby was complaining to her about an internal investigation he had to conduct because of an employee’s complaint, and he wondered aloud why people couldn’t remain silent. Bonner said she told him that if people don’t advocate for themselves, no one else will. The conversation emboldened her, and she threatened to blow the whistle on his behavior.

“My exact words were: 'I am going to start telling things about you,'” Bonner said. “He said, ‘You know what they say in the street is that snitches get stitches.’”

Shortly after telling her that, on March 18, Maultsby sent Bonner a text accompanying an article about an African whistleblower being murdered by political rivals. The article was accompanied with the same expression: “Stitches (sic) get stitches.”

Bonner said she complained to Bowden on April 12, telling him about Maultsby’s general behavior and showing him the text exchange where her boss insisted that she say she missed him before he would answer her question. She said she did not show Bowden the Christmas morning video, worried about revealing too much evidence to the top administrator who had just hired Maultsby, who was previously employed by Sarasota County. Bonner said she also showed him the text message about the whistleblower.



Despite meeting with Bowden, accompanied by School Board member Caroline Zucker, Bonner's situation did not change until May 24, when she was transferred from her department. The district issued a press release on May 24, announcing an investigation into Maultsby and unspecified complaints. She said since then her job responsibilities have been stripped. Maultsby's job responsibilities have not changed.

Last week, the board directed School Board attorney Art Hardy to hire an outside firm to investigate the allegations.

Bowden faced accusations of sexual harassment before he was hired, but an outside firm determined those accusations were unfounded. One of his accusers filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint that was ultimately dismissed.