'What lawyer would ever act like this?': Embattled Iowa county attorney accused of sexually harassing hotel clerk

Jason Clayworth | The Des Moines Register

© Copyright 2018, Des Moines Register and Tribune Co.

A Minnesota hotel clerk says a southern Iowa county attorney who was temporarily removed from office for sexual harassment spent hours in March "intensely" pursuing her for sex and drugs while his wife and children were in their room.

Trissa Lind, 21, a clerk at the Home2 Suites hotel in Minnetonka, Minnesota, told the Des Moines Register that the incident involving Van Buren County Attorney Abraham Watkins occurred in March — the same time the Iowa Supreme Court was reviewing Watkins' removal from office.

Lind told the Register that Watkins asked her where he could find marijuana, suggested she would be a good stripper, talked about sex with his wife and made comments that included how he likes puzzles and wanted to "figure out the puzzle to making me orgasm."

“He had told me he was a lawyer and I was thinking: 'What lawyer would ever act like this?' I didn't believe a thing I heard," Lind said.

After pestering her for about four hours, Watkins finally fell asleep in the hotel lobby, Lind said.

Watkins said he didn't "specifically recall" the incident and declined to confirm whether he had stayed at the hotel, instead referring questions to his attorney, Alfredo Parrish. Parrish also declined to say whether Watkins had stayed at the hotel and said he didn't believe Lind's allegations to be credible.

Lind provided the Register a text she sent to a coworker the day of the incident inquiring how to handle an inappropriate guest.

And Abby Larson, an assistant general manager at the hotel, said she saw Watkins asleep in the lobby when she arrived to work the morning of March 24.

Larson said she checked Watkins and his family out of the hotel later that morning after Lind briefed her about what happened.

Earlier finding of sexual harassment

A Van Buren District Court judge removed Watkins from office Jan. 3, 2017, after determining that the state had proven he engaged in misconduct or maladministration by regularly committing sexual harassment.

Watkins allegedly advised one of his former child care workers that she should have “Facetimed” him while she showered and also showed his female legal assistant nude photos of his wife.

In addition, Watkins allegedly wore boxer briefs in front of employees in the home office where he performed his county attorney duties, asked an employee multiple times if “her vagina was still broke” and commented about the distracting nature of a coworker’s breasts.

The state Supreme Court reinstated Watkins in a June 29 ruling in which four of the seven justices concurred that his behavior “crossed way over the line” but that the state had failed to prove that a stringent legal standard had been met that would allow for the removal of an elected official from office.

Watkins, 42, was first elected in late 2014.

The Iowa Supreme Court ordered Van Buren County to pay Watkins’ back wages and attorney fees, which could cost the county roughly $200,000, said Van Buren County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Meek. The county's insurance will pick up much of the legal costs, Meek said.

Watkins is scheduled to resume his duties at 8 a.m. Monday at an office in the county courthouse, Meek said.

At a July 10 press conference, Watkins said he hadn’t decided whether he would seek re-election.

“I make no excuse for my carelessness. This is a straight-up apology and I firmly resolve not to commit these errors again,” Watkins said then. “To my wife, to my family, to clients, to Jasmin Wallingford to the citizens of Van Buren County and to the Iowa legal community: I am sorry and I vow not to repeat this harm to you.”

The hotel clerk's account

Lind said Watkins told her he was an attorney and gave her his business card, which had his cell number written on the back. She provided a copy of the card to the Register.

Lind did not file a police report over the hotel incident, saying she didn’t believe law enforcement could do anything since she made no allegations of physical assault.

Lind said she researched Watkins’ name from the business card he gave her and learned of his pending case before the Iowa Supreme Court.

Lind in March contacted Jasmin Wallingford, the former legal assistant of Watkins' who had reported that he had sexually harassed her and who was part of the district court case.

Lind said her objective in going public with what happened to her is to help protect other women from experiencing Watkins’ behavior.

“It was inappropriate and foul behavior,” Lind said. “I can’t fathom why anybody — much less a grown man with two daughters — would ever speak to another female like that.”

Wallingford, the legal assistant who testified in the district court case, was 20 when she was hired by Watkins in 2014. Wallingford confirmed that Lind contacted her in March and told the Register she believes the hotel clerk’s story.

“What she told me — and especially sending me pictures of his business card with his phone number on the back of it — I definitely believe that it happened,” Wallingford said.

The Register contacted Watkins by calling the cell number listed on the back of the business card. He said he didn’t “recall specifically what you’re talking about, and I don’t like to take calls directly from news outlets on my cellphone.”

Watkins then directed questions to his attorney. Parrish contends Lind’s allegations are not credible.

“Have you ever seen a case where it got this much press nationwide where you didn’t get the most ridiculous phone calls in the world? I get them all the time,” Parrish said. “… The minute I have a case that gets press, you get the craziest calls in the world.”

​​​​​​ The Iowa Supreme Court's opinion

The standard set by the Iowa law that allows the courts to unseat elected officials is high and had not been met, four of the seven Iowa Supreme Court justices agreed in a June 29 decision that resulted in Abraham Watkins' reinstatement as Van Buren County Attorney.

The supreme court ruling found that District Judge James Drew erred when he found in 2017 that Abraham Watkins had committed "willful misconduct or maladministration in office."

"The conduct of the county attorney, while deserving the disapproval it received from the district court, did not rise to the level of misconduct that would warrant the 'drastic' and 'penal' remedy of a court order removing an elected official from office," Justice Bruce Zager wrote in his plurality opinion.

Three justices starkly dissented, with Justice David Wiggins saying Watkins' behavior was "repugnant" and was getting his job back via the "good-old-boy excuse."

Justice Mark Cady said the view of the majority of the supreme court rests on “a defunct and antiquated view of hostile work environments.”