Robert Freeman, an attorney who worked in state government for more than four decades in New York as an expert on open government laws, "habitually engaged in sexual harassment," over several years, State Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro said Thursday.

Freeman was fired in June after a newspaper reporter filed a sexual harassment complaint against him—but that was far from the first time he was accused of such conduct.

Nearly five months later, the New York Inspector General's Office released an extensive report Wednesday, detailing the allegations levied against Freeman during the specific incident from earlier this year and others that preceded it.

"Mr. Freeman habitually engaged in sexual harassment of multiple women over many years," Tagliaferro said.

During the four decades that he led the state's Committee on Open Government, Freeman was known by many for his inappropriate advances toward young women, the report said. Those individuals ranged from state workers to those in the private sector, including multiple reporters.

"Given the stature Freeman attained during his tenure as executive director, his role as the sole authority on government transparency, and the power dynamic he repeatedly promoted, many of the women who spoke with my office said they believed it would be futile to report his misconduct," Tagliafierro said Thursday.

While many women chose not to report Freeman's conduct for a variety of reasons, others had in the past, the report said. 

He was "verbally admonished" after a coworker said he kissed her while they were in the lobby of a hotel on a business trip in 2003, for example. Freeman claimed, at the time, that he had kissed her as a form of greeting, according to the report.

A decade later, Freeman was the subject of an investigation over inappropriate behavior involving several other women who worked in state government, the report said.

One female employee at the Department of State who worked near Freeman said, at the time, that he had sat on her desk and attempted to look down her blouse. Another said Freeman would stand uncomfortably close to her and call her "cute" and "attractive."

A supervisor of two other female employees accused Freeman, around the same time, of running his hands along their shoulders or arms, making thrusting movements with his pelvic area, standing close to them, and asking them if they worked out.

Based on those claims, the affirmative action officer at the Department of State filed a formal complaint against Freeman. He was directed to attend sexual harassment prevention and equal employment training and to stop engaging in the reported behavior.

Outside state government, Freeman was also the subject of at least one informal complaint about his behavior before the incident earlier this year.

In 2015, Freeman received a letter from the news director at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper about a conversation he had with a female reporter. According to that letter, Freeman had made personal comments to the reporter over the phone, and even said she looked "pretty but young" in the headshot on her LinkedIn account.

"There are certain lines I would prefer our sources, helpful or otherwise, not cross with our reporters," the news director wrote. "I trust we won't have to discuss a similar misadventure again."

That letter was sent to the director of the Human Resources Office at the Department of State at the time, but no action was taken, according to the report.

Four years later, in May of this year, Freeman had a similar interaction with the reporter whose complaint ultimately led to his termination. 

While speaking to the reporter on the phone about open government laws, Freeman made comments to her about "her youth and looks," according to the report, and said he was looking at a photo of her from the internet. 

When she had more questions about open government laws for Freeman, who was widely known as the top expert on that topic, she agreed to meet him at a diner. He greeted her with a hug, the reporter told the Inspector General's Office.

"And then it went downhill from there," the reporter testified.

During their meeting, Freeman repeatedly looked at her chest, the reporter said. He squeezed her shoulder when he got up to use the restroom and later put a hand on her waist while they were leaving the diner. 

Outside, Freeman told her he liked her long braids, the reporter said, and then moved them behind her shoulder. While they walked away, Freeman put his hand, again, on the reporter's waist and then moved it to her bottom.

After she moved away from him, he followed her to his car and hugged her. That was followed by a kiss on her cheek "close enough to my mouth to where I felt his like mustache like on me," the reporter testified.

In an interview with the Inspector General's Office, Freeman confirmed parts of that encounter but denied others. He said he thought he had kissed her at the end of the meeting but said he hadn't touched her bottom. He didn't remember the other allegations, the report said.

That encounter, which was first reported in June, was followed by several other reports in various media outlets on similar experiences women had with Freeman over the years. Many of those claims hadn't been reported. 

The report found that, in many of those cases, the victims of Freeman's harassment either thought it didn't reach the level of a formal complaint or were concerned about retaliation. For reporters, Freeman was the go-to source on public information, for example.

The Inspector General's Office, in the report, recommended that employers in New York disseminate and clarify options their employees have when confronted with sexual harassment from a state employee. 

The report also recommended that the State Office of Information Technology Services implement new policies to address inappropriate activity or suspicious behavior on state computers. 

Freeman was found to have exchanged inappropriate images and conversations on a state computer, according to the report. No action was taken when that was initially discovered by the agency.

Freeman could not immediately be reached for comment on the report Thursday.

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