Alcee Hastings, Fla. Democratic congressman, faces sexual harassment allegation

(By Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post) - The conservative legal group Judicial Watch announced Monday that it has filed a lawsuit against Rep. Alcee Hastings, accusing the 10-term Florida Democrat of sexually harassing a policy adviser who worked on a commission that Hastings once chaired.

The lawsuit, filed Monday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses Hastings of making "unwelcome sexual advances" and taking retaliation against the female employee, Winsome Packer, from January 2008 to February 2010. Packer, a Republican, worked on the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, which Hastings had co-chaired until Democrats lost their House majority this year.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are the commission and its former staff director, Fred Turner.

According to the lawsuit, Hastings made repeated sexual advances toward Packer, including asking her to accompany him alone to his hotel room; asking her "humiliating and inappropriate" questions in public; and making unwanted physical contact, including "hugging her with both arms while pressing his body against her body and his face against her face."