FBI boss harassed 8 women, watchdog finds
One woman carried a ruler at FBI headquarters so she could smack James Hendricks’ hands when he reached for her legs and breasts. Another went home shaken after he tugged on her ear and kissed her cheek during a closed-door meeting.
And when Hendricks went on to lead the FBI’s field office in
Albany, New York, in 2018, colleagues described him as a “skilled predator” who
leered at women in the workplace, touched them inappropriately and asked one to
have sex in a conference room, according to a newly released federal report
obtained by The Associated Press.
Hendricks quietly retired last year as a special agent in
charge after the Office of Inspector General — the Justice Department’s
internal watchdog — concluded he sexually harassed eight female subordinates in
one of the FBI’s most egregious known cases of sexual misconduct.
Hendricks was among several senior FBI officials highlighted
in an AP investigation last year that found a pattern of supervisors avoiding
discipline — and retiring with full benefits — even after claims of sexual
misconduct against them were substantiated.
The FBI said it could not discuss Hendricks’ case but that
it “maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual harassment and is committed
to fostering a safe work environment where all of our employees are valued,
protected and respected.”
Hendricks, 50, who now writes a law enforcement blog, did
not respond to messages seeking comment. He told investigators his accusers had
either misinterpreted his actions or exaggerated his behavior, and that he was
not sexually attracted to them.
“It’s an ugly, ugly laundry list of things that were said,
and that’s really hurtful to me and it really just disappoints me,” he was quoted
as saying.
The details of Hendricks’ sexual harassment — outlined in a
52-page report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act — have not
previously been reported. The OIG blacked out Hendricks’ name in the report,
but he was identified by law enforcement officials familiar with his case.
Drawing on interviews with more than a dozen FBI officials,
the report traces Hendricks’ harassment to his time at FBI headquarters, where
he served as a section chief in the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. He
was tapped in 2018 to lead the Albany field office, where he supervised more
than 200 agents and other FBI employees. Six of his accusers were in Albany;
two were in Washington.
Some colleagues chalked up Hendricks’ behavior to his being
a “Southern gentleman” — he served as a police officer in western Kentucky
before joining the bureau in 1998 — but others said he routinely crossed the
line, became “super giddy” around women and was “incapable of stopping himself”
from harassing them.
Co-workers told investigators he surrounded himself with a
“harem” of attractive women, was fixated on high heels and breasts, and was
known for gawking at female agents as they walked down the hallway.
In office conversations that involved women, Hendricks would
shift his “body posture and head angle to stare at their breasts and bodies in
a manner that was calculated to avoid detection,” the OIG report says. Male and
female agents alike told investigators they endured this “as a condition of
simply interacting with their boss.”
Even Hendricks’ male colleagues considered him “creepy” and
one described how he simulated masturbation once when an attractive woman left
the room. But like many female agents, they did not report him for fear of
retaliation.
Hendricks once asked a female subordinate to sit in the
passenger seat of a vehicle “so that I can play with that beautiful hair.” He
later asked the same woman why she didn’t wear shorts to the office and she
said “because that would be inappropriate.” The woman said she didn’t report
Hendricks because all of her work required his approval and “she wanted to be
successful in the office.”
Another woman told investigators that Hendricks pressured
her into having a sexual relationship, and that he had been known to be
vindictive and “push out” people who crossed him.
“He was in a powerful position,” the report says, “and she
worried about what he would do if she did not respond to his advances.”
FBI policy permits supervisors to pursue sexual
relationships with subordinates but requires them be disclosed so management
“may determine whether remedial action, such as reassignment, is necessary to
prevent interference with the FBI’s mission.”
The Office of Inspector General, however, said “the
imbalance of power between superiors and subordinates could call into question
the consensual nature of romantic or intimate relationships.”
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