For more than a decade, Iowa legislators and staff members engaged in lewd and sexually aggressive behavior, creating a "toxic" environment and a "culture of secrets" at the state Capitol, according to detailed court depositions reviewed by the Des Moines Register.

The depositions, taken under oath by about two-dozen lawmakers and legislative staffers, comprise more than 1,000 pages of documents previously unreleased to the public. They were part of a landmark sexual harassment case that resulted in the state of Iowa paying a $1.75 million settlement last year.

More on harassment at the Capitol:

The depositions detail more than 50 instances of inappropriate behavior that played out over years at the Capitol, including allegations that:

Multiple staff members watched pornography at work, including male staffers who gathered to view a video of topless women jumping on a trampoline to the tune of “Jingle Bells.”

Staff members and lawmakers described female co-workers and lobbyists in lewd or sexually derogatory ways. For example, male legislative staffers would “go out in like a little pack,” assessing the physical attributes of female lobbyists. One male legislative employee called women "c----", a vulgar term referring to female genitalia.

A senator gossiped with a colleague that a female senator was sexually promiscuous, while another senator asked a staff member on the Senate floor about the size of her nipples. The latter senator's drinking problems prompted a Senate leader to bring a breathalyzer to test his colleague before he spoke on the Senate floor.

While several of the allegations previously were made public, the depositions detail the breadth and depth of sexual misconduct reported under the Capitol dome, as well as lawmakers' inability or unwillingness to promptly address it, a Register analysis shows.

"I think it shows what a toxic work environment we’re exposed to when you have grown men fantasizing about people’s sex lives on the Senate floor and getting away with it year after year," said Sen. Janet Petersen, who court testimony shows was the target of some of the sexual comments. "It's appalling."

The depositions were taken in connection with a civil suit brought by Kirsten Anderson, a Senate Republican staffer fired in 2013 shortly after complaining about harassment and sexual misconduct at work.

A jury in September 2017 awarded Anderson $2.2 million, about $1 million more than she sought before going to trial. The state ultimately settled for $1.75 million.

The sexual misconduct detailed in the depositions exposes a culture of misogyny and intolerance that is far more pervasive among Iowa’s top elected officials than what came out in Anderson’s case, Des Moines Attorney Roxanne Conlin said.

For decades, Conlin has represented state employees on various workplace issues. She said she has consulted with legislative employees who have had to choose between quitting or tolerating ongoing abuse because they fear professional consequences or retaliation.

"I can't promise a woman who comes to me with a complaint that she won’t be fired," Conlin said. “Kirsten Anderson won a very big case, but she also lost her job and she went a very long time without a job. That’s frightening."

Years of silence, inaction

The misconduct detailed in the documents stretches back more than a decade. One current staffer, for example, testified that one of her co-workers was fired about 20 years ago for being pregnant.

In retrospect, some senators now say the problems have been compounded by silence and inaction: When staffers came forward to complain about harassing behavior, little or nothing was done.

Sen. Rick Bertrand, R-Sioux City, puts himself among legislators who have used inappropriate language. At least two Republican staffers said in depositions that Bertrand — privately among other male staffers — spoke inappropriately about women.

Bertrand describes himself as a "foul-mouthed Irish Catholic." But he said he has cleaned up the way he talks in the wake of the Anderson case and the #MeToo movement, which has drawn national attention to workplace harassment.

"I've tried to clean it up because of everything that's going on," Bertrand said. "And this isn't a Republican or Democratic issue. You start getting into 70-plus-hour work weeks, and sometimes language can get loose."

The part-time nature of Legislature creates an unusual work environment, Bertrand said: Lawmakers from across the state are in Des Moines for four or five months, sometimes spending 12 to 16 hours a day with other legislators, staff members and lobbyists.

In addition, lobbying groups host hundreds of events — many after typical legislative hours — that involve alcohol.

That dynamic can create a situation where people become overly comfortable because they relate so closely and so frequently, Bertrand said.

Beyond Anderson's lawsuit, public records offer little evidence that lawmakers paid attention in the past decade to the issue of potential sexual harassment by colleagues or staff. And the repercussions for such conduct aren't always clear.

Most legislative employees can be terminated immediately for almost any reason. But potential sanctions for lawmakers who violate employee policies are murky, other than potentially losing the next election.

How violations worthy of termination might apply to lawmakers would be determined case-by-case by the Legislature's ethics committees, each comprised of three Democratic and three Republican legislators, said Carmine Boal, a former legislator who is now the chief House clerk.

The Senate this year updated some of its harassment policies following the Anderson settlement, but more work is needed, officials from both parties have said.

"I'm just disgusted by the whole thing," said Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, who said she believes it's possible the Anderson case could have been avoided had proper systems been in place to protect legislative workers.

Pervasive fear of retaliation

Nearly everyone who testified or who was identified in the depositions taken for the Anderson case — about 40 people, including former Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix and current Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Jerry Behn — did not respond or declined to comment for this story.

Pam Dugdale, a longtime legislative research analyst, was among those who declined to comment. But in her three-hour deposition, Dugdale decried Capitol conduct.

"I would like to consider myself a strong woman," Dugdale testified. "However, as this case has gone on, it has made me question whether I am or not because I put up with a lot of crap, good ol' boy network crap."

Several lobbyists — including some men — and legislative staffers other than Dugdale told the Register that if they spoke publicly outside of court about what they have witnessed, they couldn't remain effective in their jobs.

Anderson — who in a court deposition described feelings of shame and defeat because of the sexual harassment she experienced — said in a Register interview that her termination is evidence that the fear of retaliation is real.

She describes the Legislature as “a culture of secrets.”

“Putting more sunshine on these issues is good, and I think it would have quashed my situation pretty fast,” Anderson said. “I think there needs to be more accountability. It’s disappointing that there hasn’t been, and there still isn’t.”

The Capitol fosters an atmosphere that protects people who act badly, Anderson said.

As an example, she pointed to the accusations in her lawsuit — documented by emails and multiple people’s testimony — detailing a December 2012 GOP staffer’s comment that a job applicant "likes rhythm."

When a co-worker asked what he meant, the staffer — Jim Friedrich, a former GOP candidate for state representative — said in front of at least six people: "She likes the black d---," referencing male genitalia.

Friedrich remained employed for about five more years. He resigned shortly after the September 2017 verdict in the Anderson case.

GOP staff would not say if Friedrich was forced to resign.

Friedrich allegedly was disciplined shortly after the December 2012 comments with a letter of reprimand, although Republican staffers said they misplaced the document and couldn't produce a copy as requested in the court case.

Former Senate Secretary Mike Marshall investigated the matter but said in a court deposition last year it was the Senate leadership's place to take appropriate action. Marshall, who is now bureau chief of the Iowa Department of Public Health, said he interviewed Anderson and Dugdale about the "rhythm" comments.

"I think the phrase 'locker-room environment' maybe had been used once, but at that time neither of them wanted to provide any specifics or particulars," he said.

Marshall said he believed Dix and Senate Democrats, including former Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal and Jochum, were made aware of the situation and were taking the matter seriously.

Jochum, who became Senate president in 2013, said she had never been informed about the issue. Gronstal and Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, and the 2012 Senate president, said they also were unaware of the incident.

Court depositions indicated at least some Senate staffers realized the "rhythm" conversation was problematic, which led to the letter of reprimand.

“I was appalled, and immediately I started going into problem-solving mode in my head, and I knew I had to deal with this and it was serious,” Ed Failor Jr., a top aide to Dix, said in his deposition last year.

Failor Jr., who resigned from his position this year, declined an interview but issued a statement in response to the Register’s inquiry about his June 2017 deposition.

"I'm going into consulting work and entering into a new venture outside of politics," Failor Jr. said, "and very soon hope to have no connections to political work."

In July 2017, Senate Republicans launched their own internal investigation into Anderson’s claims of workplace harassment at the Capitol.

The resulting report confirmed some of the incidents already revealed publicly as part of Anderson’s court case and noted that some employees declined to participate in the investigation for fear of retaliation.

But the report concluded an investigation from an outside entity wasn't necessary.

A lack of knowledge at the top

Some Republican senators — including top leaders such as Behn, chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee — testified that they knew nothing about Anderson’s accusations until news stories were published about the lawsuit she filed more than a year after her 2013 termination.

Behn, a Boone Republican who was the minority leader in 2012, said in a deposition that he didn’t know if allegations in the Anderson lawsuit were investigated and that he had not talked with other senators after the accusations were published.

"Is there a reason you have not asked about it?" Michael Carroll, Anderson's attorney, asked Behn in the April 2017 deposition.

"Well, I didn’t think I needed to," Behn responded. "I didn't think it was even my place. I wasn’t the leader anymore."

Bertrand said in a deposition that he wasn’t made aware of Anderson's allegations until her lawsuit became a news story.

At a minimum, he believes such allegations should have been brought to the attention of the Republican caucus by Dix, who was then leader of Republicans in the Senate. Dix, who is married, abruptly resigned from his elected position in March after a video surfaced of him kissing a lobbyist at a Des Moines tavern.

Failure to address the matters most likely contributed to the state’s liability in the Anderson case, Bertrand said.

"That was one of my complaints with Sen. Dix," Bertrand said in an interview. "We were blindsided. It just seemed like there was no communication."

A difficult environment for staffers, lobbyists

About six months after Anderson was fired, Catherine Bryan, another Republican legislative staffer, resigned.

Bryan cited workplace anxiety and a fear of retaliation following a harassment complaint she filed against Failor Jr., unemployment documents show.

In a deposition, Failor Jr. said the complaint was filed after he told Bryan that if she had an older, single sister, "I would marry her tomorrow."

Bryan — who declined to speak for this article — never filed a lawsuit but was awarded unemployment, state records show.

Petersen worries that there are more staffers out there in a similar situation. "If people in the lobby are harassed, they may be afraid to report things."

Petersen said it's far easier for a lawmaker like her to speak out than staff members or lobbyists who rely on lawmaker relationships for their livelihoods.

"It's a difficult climate up here."