Details released on harassment complaints; ex-lottery executive accused of groping

The staff had just launched a huge project and it was time to celebrate: A shindig at the Maxwell House hotel.

There was fun. There was drinking. There was dancing. But some of the female workers complained that things went too far.

A male executive "grabbed me on my butt," one woman later reported. "It was long enough to know his hand was there. Immediately pushed him away and moved."

The scene was the launch party of the Tennessee Lottery in January 2004.

The male exec accused of inappropriate behavior was Steve Adams, then the lottery's chief administrative officer and former state treasurer for more than a dozen years.

Details of the allegations against Adams — four harassment complaints at three lottery-related functions — were made public Tuesday, a year after Gov. Phil Bredesen said a sexual harassment problem exists in state government, and nine months after the governor outlined new policies to deal with harassment complaints.

Adams was fired from his $180,000-a-year lottery position in January of this year after being accused of sexual harassment.

However, documents including the lottery's internal investigation in his case were kept under wraps until a judge ruled that the lottery could not keep them secret.

After the documents were released Tuesday, Adams said that he had a couple of drinks at the social events but was not drunk.

"I don't think there is one valid complaint of workplace harassment contained in the entire report," he said.

Adams admitted having had too much to drink at two of the events and was described by partygoers at the other event as intoxicated, the file showed.

At the launch party, witnesses said he was pushy about dancing with co-workers when they didn't want to, asking one reluctant partner, "You didn't think an old man could groove like this, did you?"

The former state treasurer, 55, was counseled after each incident, but no formal investigation was started until the third complaint, nearly two years after the first allegation, according to the lottery report.

Adams told internal investigators that he had no recollection of the behavior ascribed to him at two of the events. He had a different recollection about the third, according to the investigative report.

"The common factor in all of these situations is the amount of alcohol consumed by Steve and then the question is how much that plays into Steve's conduct and behavior in social settings," the investigation summary showed.

In his comments Tuesday, Adams pointed to one complaint by a woman employee of a lottery contractor, who "goes out of her way to comment that there was no inappropriate physical contact."