On his first official day as the Illinois General Assembly’s acting ethics watchdog, David Risley had stern advice for any lawmakers or legislative staffers who commit sexual harassment.
“First, someone always knows about your behavior and someone will always talk about it to someone else, and sooner or later word will get to our office,” he said in a 10½-minute video posted Thursday on his office’s website. “Second, when we do hear about it, no matter who you are, given our investigative backgrounds in the (legislative inspector general’s) office, we’ve successfully investigated a lot bigger fish than you. So think about that and act like a decent human being.”
Legislative Inspector General
In an image from video, the Illinois General Assembly’s acting ethics watchdog David Risley is shown speaking on the legislative inspector general’s website.
Risley, a former federal prosecutor from central Illinois, was chosen by the Legislative Ethics Commission as acting legislative inspector general after the previous officeholder, Michael McCuskey, resigned. McCuskey, a former state and federal judge, stepped down after facing questions over his handling of a female lobbyist’s sexual harassment allegations against former state Rep. Harry Benton.
In the video, Risley said a top priority is making the inspector general’s office a “safe place” for harassment victims. That means keeping the information they provide confidential, making sure investigators have the proper certifications and hiring more investigators, including some with expertise in sexual harassment, other workplace harassment and unlawful discrimination.
“We often hear or read about a culture of sexual harassment. I prefer to think of it as a subculture because most people find it abhorrent, including most legislators and most legislative branch employees, and they will not and should not tolerate it,” Risley said.
Risley’s video release comes during a tumultuous year in Springfield around the issue of sexual harassment.
In July, Benton, a two-term Democrat from Plainfield, resigned from the legislature and withdrew from the November ballot amid pressure from House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch after the speaker received a copy of a report by McCuskey that found Benton engaged in a “pattern and practice” of sexual harassment against the lobbyist and two other women.
But a Tribune investigation published two weeks before McCuskey’s report became public disclosed that Welch’s office had been aware of sexual harassment allegations involving Benton for years. In April 2023, Welch’s then-chief of staff received communications from one of the three women — a young female staffer in Benton’s district office — about Benton’s behavior. Welch took no action against Benton at the time and a year later even gave Benton’s reelection campaign $1.4 million.
While McCuskey’s report supported the allegations against Benton, another of the three women, the lobbyist, was upset at how McCuskey handled the investigation.
In a letter to the four top legislative leaders, first reported by the Tribune, the lobbyist alleged McCuskey “violated the confidence of other victims and me, broke standard investigative norms, and made inappropriate comments” to her during their interview and in other interactions. She accused him of revealing confidential information about the two other women who had accused Benton and of failing to record or take “contemporaneous” notes during their interview. McCuskey stepped down at the end of September.
Former Illinois Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey, photographed when he was chair of the Illinois State University Board of Trustees, in 2014. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
In the video message, Risley said two investigators should conduct each interview and, with permission, record and transcribe all interviews. People who file complaints, especially of sexual harassment, may bring an attorney, a friend, “or other support person with them if they so choose,” he said.
He also stressed the confidential nature of the office’s work.
“In my previous career as a federal prosecutor, lives often depended on me keeping secrets secret and confidences confidential,” Risley said. “For the latter part of my career I held a top secret security clearance. I’ve sometimes said I kept secrets for a living. Trust in confidentiality when confidentiality is called for is vital to the effective functioning of any investigative office, especially in the environment in which the legislative inspector general operates.”
He added that “it’s far better to prevent ethics or other violations than to investigate and report them after the fact and the damage is done,” and pledged to be a resource for legislative staffers who handle ethics issues.
The legislative inspector general’s office has a narrow focus on investigating misconduct allegations against the 177 members of the General Assembly and their staff. But ethics reformers have criticized it for not being empowered enough to root out potential misdeeds within the legislative branch.
Lawmakers have floated changes, including extending the one-year statute of limitations for the office to investigate allegations. Following criticism of Welch’s handling of the Benton matter, a group of House Democrats has been brainstorming possible changes to law or internal policy to address workplace culture at the Capitol.
The Legislative Ethics Commission, made up of four Democratic and four Republican lawmakers, appointed Risley to serve until the full legislature confirms a permanent replacement. An acting legislative inspector general has the same authority as a permanent one and, if necessary, could serve until the current term ends on June 30, 2028.
However long he stays, Risley emphasized in the video that “violations will not be tolerated” and urged “those who either experience or observe sexual or other harassment, report it.”
“Be part of the solution, not a silent perpetuator of the problem,” he said. “If you fear reprisal, we also enforce protections for whistleblowers.”