Judge questions state investigation into sexual harassment at Iowa Veterans Home • Iowa Capital Dispatch

In a ruling that holds the state accountable over its investigation into alleged sexual harassment at the Iowa Veterans Home, a judge has awarded unemployment benefits to a former supervisor who was fired in response to “vague allegations” of misconduct.

Brett Schutt worked as a full-time public service director for the state-run Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown until his firing in February 2024, according to state records. Schutt previously worked at the home as an assistant food service manager.

While working in the catering industry, Schutt supervised an employee who also performed supervisory duties. According to the findings of Administrative Law Judge Sean Nelson, who recently presided over a hearing on Schutt’s unemployment benefits application, Schutt and the woman were on friendly terms, at least initially, having various conversations with each other and fishing together at a pond with their respective families.

Sometime in 2022, while Schutt was caring for the woman, the two allegedly met in her office, where she told him, “I would cheat on my husband with you.” A few days later, the woman approached Schutt in his office. “The (woman) was not wearing a bra and fondled her breasts through her shirt to seduce him,” Nelson said in his findings.

Schutt did not react to the woman’s actions and nothing similar happened in the following days. However, the woman continued to confide in Schutt her frustrations with her marriage and her “use of various illegal drugs,” Nelson explained.

Schutt then moved to the position of director of public services at the Iowa Veterans Home, after which he and the woman clashed in three separate personnel cases over her treatment of employees. In all three cases, Schutt was concerned that the woman had dismissed workers’ legitimate concerns.

In September 2023, the woman separated from her husband and moved to a house near the Iowa Veterans Home. In the following weeks, she and Schutt again clashed over the treatment of staff at the Iowa Veterans Home, and Schutt allegedly confronted her about her use of illegal drugs and asked whether drug use played a role in her behavior.

“He noticed that their drug use frequency was increasing and he was concerned,” Nelson stated in his findings.

Days later, the woman filed a sexual harassment complaint against Schutt, who was subsequently placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

According to Nelson’s findings, Schutt allegedly followed her in his car several times while she was driving home, broke into her house once and once asked her to meet her at a local park.

The woman also claimed that Schutt threatened to show her husband any photos. The complaint she filed “never specified what the images were, but the employer assumed they were images of her. “Perhaps compromising ones,” Nelson said in his findings.

When the Iowa Department of Administrative Services investigated the matter, Schutt was interviewed. He denied all allegations, but DAS subsequently recommended that Schutt be fired for violating sexual harassment policies.

On February 28, 2024, the state held a hearing regarding Schutt’s possible termination, during which Schutt described the instances in which he felt the woman had sexually harassed him. He also noted that there were other employees who engaged in confirmed incidents of sexual harassment and were suspended for five days.

Schutt also claimed he heard from two subordinates that the state’s human resources director, Melissa Sienknecht, was involved in spreading a rumor about a woman who slept with the commandant of the Iowa Veterans Home.

The day after the hearing, the state fired Schutt. “He was never questioned about the allegations he made against Ms. Sienknecht,” Nelson said in his findings. “No investigation was conducted.”

Shortly after his firing, Schutt was awarded unemployment benefits, but the state appealed that decision, resulting in the matter being brought before Nelson for a hearing on the issue.

During that hearing, state officials said that Schutt’s examples of workers being suspended for a few days for sexual harassment were not comparable to the case at hand because they involved lower-level workers, not supervisors. They argued that a “senior employee” of the state had previously been fired for egregious sexual harassment, but then refused to provide details to Nelson, citing confidentiality.

In his ruling, Nelson concluded that the state had not met its burden of proving Schutt’s misconduct and that, even if it had, it could not demonstrate that it applied the underlying sexual harassment rules impartially and consistently applies.

Schutt, the judge ruled, “provided a plausible explanation in support of his allegations that (the woman) made a false sexual harassment complaint against him.” He provided credible testimony that even if the conduct had occurred, might have been welcomed.”

Nelson also accused the Iowa Veterans Home of relying on a third-party investigative report, namely DAS, noting that the state did not bother to provide the report as part of its appeal and instead during I read excerpts from it at the hearing.

As for the report itself, Nelson said it appeared from the testimony that it lacked any details about the intent or even the basic circumstances of the events used to justify Schutt’s firing.

“For example, (the woman claims) Schutt went into her home on September 27, 2023,” Nelson noted. “No explanation is given as to how he got in. It is unclear whether he broke into the home and whether there was any interaction between the two individuals.”

Additionally, Nelson said, the state accused Schutt of showing or threatening to show photos to the woman’s husband, but Sienknecht confirmed during the unemployment hearing “that the investigation never determined what the pictures were.” acted, let alone whether they were sexual in nature.”

Nelson affirmed the original decision to award Schutt unemployment benefits.