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NAACP Leader, Legislator Texts Teen Photo Of Genitals, Allegedly Sexually Harassed Her: I Thought I Was Texting My Wife

   DailyWire.com
A logo is seen for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks speaks during a press conference at the Lincoln Memorial June 15, 2015 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee/Getty Images

A legislator in Monroe County, New York, admitted Saturday to sending a picture of his genitals to a 19-year-old woman he was working with after she accused him of sexual harassment on the day he was sworn in as president of a New York chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

Monroe County Legislator Ernest Flagler-Mitchell defended himself by citing his faith in God and claiming he intended to send the photo of his genitals to his wife. He also claimed without evidence that he is being blackmailed over the incident because of his work for minority communities.

In a letter to Monroe County legislators, LaKaya Sinclair called for Flagler-Mitchell’s resignation and suggested there are other victims of the legislator’s predatory behavior. The legislator met Sinclair following a devastating shooting last year, offering up his contact information if the young girl ever needed help.

“I am writing this letter to share with you that your colleague County Legislature for Legislative district 29, Ernest Flager-Mitchell, has explicitly sexually harassed me and has sent me an unsolicited photo of his genital,” Sinclair wrote.

“I first met him after being the victim of the Pennsylvania Ave graduation shooting that occurred on September 18th, 2020,” she outlined. “A few days later there was a community gathering and he introduced himself to me as the official county legislature for my district. He gave his county legislature business card and told me if I ever needed anything to give him a call. … I reached out for help not to be sexually harassed.”

“I am writing this so that you are all aware of the type of person he is,” Sinclair said. “I am going public and will be asking for his resignation. No one should be in a position where they turned to their elected official for help and are met with unwanted sexual advances and inappropriate messages. I am only 19 years old.”

“I believe there are other women who are victims of him and I will be pleading with the community to not only support me, but to come forth if this has been their experience with this particular legislature. I am asking for his resignation so that he does not continue to use his seat and abuse his power and am asking this body to formerly investigate this matter,” she closed the letter. “The fact that he did this to me so swiftly lets me know that he has done this before and as I stated, it is my hope that other women in this community find their voice and come forward to share their stories.”

In a statement admitting that he sent the photo, Flagler-Mitchell fashioned himself the victim of extortion without providing evidence.

“As a man of faith I believe we all must take responsibility for our actions and I have always tried to do that both in my personal and professional life,” the statement opened. “In November, I sent a picture intended for my wife to an individual I was working with. I took immediate responsibility for my mistake. I deleted the file, acknowledged the mistake, apologized and hoped I had not offended them. They responded at the time by accepting my apology and assured me that they were not offended. Additionally, I immediately took responsibility for what occurred with my wife, by telling her what had happened and I regret that she is now embarrassed by my error.”

“I fully believed this matter was resolved at that time, but subsequently I have been contacted both directly and indirectly by politically connected individuals who have tried to use this mistake as a form of blackmail to force me into abandoning the Black and Asian Caucus in the Legislature,” Flagler-Mitchell accused.

“These agents have threatened to make my mistake public unless I bow to their political wishes and walk away from this important caucus in an effort for me to ‘fall in line’ with their agenda,” the statement continued. “They followed through with this threat because I was contacted by a media outlet regarding this matter. It was after that I learned that these same individuals have also contacted nearly every other member of the Black and Asian Caucus with the same threat.”

“I did not bow to this pressure and asked my colleagues not to either. I know what I did and I take full responsibility for it, but it is ‘extortion’ to threaten me and my colleagues with making this incident public unless we abandon the Black and Asian Caucus. Threatening us to abandon our people is a disgusting politically motivated power play, but more than that, it is illegal.”

“I have consulted legal counsel and we’re asking law enforcement to investigate this extortion and hold those responsible accountable,” Flagler-Mitchell claimed. “I have taken responsibility for my actions and those who have tried to use them to extort compliance with their political agenda need to take responsibility as well.”

However, according to the Democrat & Chronicle, the legislation “has not provided any record of the alleged extortion nor detailed those responsible in his public statement. Flagler-Mitchell did not name the legal counsel he claims to have consulted in his statement, nor has he called for law enforcement involvement until Saturday.”

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