Three years after longtime Democratic state Sen. Gene Davis was accused of sexually harassing a university student, Utah settled a lawsuit with the former legislative intern earlier this year for $25,000, according to a document obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
Money rewarded as part of the settlement was paid by the state, and covered by insurance it maintains for legal claims against state employees.
After a Senate-commissioned investigation found Davis “more likely than not” violated the Legislature’s sexual harassment policies in his behavior toward Sonia Weglinski, who previously agreed to allow her name to be published, sued Davis, the state of Utah, the Legislature, its Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel and the Legislature’s former intern coordinator in 2023.
Weglinski was 19 years old when she began working with the former Salt Lake City senator. She originally shared her experience as Davis’ intern and campaign staffer on her personal Instagram account in August 2022. She alleged Davis touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable on multiple occasions during her five months working with him.
The longtime senator was defeated in his primary reelection bid that year by Nate Blouin before Weglinski went public with the allegations.
The Utah attorney general’s office represented all of the defendants — including Davis.
The state, the Legislature and OLRGC were eventually dropped from the case on a filing technicality, leaving Davis and former intern coordinator Nathan Brady, who still works as a legislative staffer in other capacities, as the sole defendants.
In an order dismissing those parties, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball agreed with the attorney general’s office that Weglinski was an employee of OLRGC, not the Legislature, which is the entity she named in a complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Before filing a sex-based discrimination lawsuit, employees must first file a charge with the EEOC and seek a resolution there.
Davis and Brady, the settlement agreement notes, are “in no way admitting liability for any of the Claims or Released Claims” by signing the document, “and any such liability is hereby expressly denied.” According to the document, defendants sought a settlement to “avoid the expense of further litigation.”
The settlement agreement, which Weglinski signed in May, bars her from speaking to reporters or on social media about either Davis or Brady. Citing that provision, her attorney declined to comment on the case’s conclusion.
A timely donation
One day after the assistant attorney general on the case notified Kimball that the state had secured a settlement agreement with Weglinski, Davis’ personal attorney, Benjamin Grindstaff, donated $1,000 to Attorney General Derek Brown’s campaign. Grindstaff did not respond to questions about why he made the contribution.
A spokesperson for Brown’s campaign said the attorney general returned the donation after The Tribune contacted his office with questions about it to “avoid any concerns,” and that he did not know about Grindstaff’s ties to Davis.
Brown’s office also said they were unfamiliar with Grindstaff’s ties to Davis and were not aware of the donation.
“The Office of the Utah Attorney General represents its clients, including state employees sued in their official capacities, with diligence and integrity,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement. “The case was effectively managed and resolved by our Litigation Division in collaboration with our client, the Utah Division of Risk Management. Our office did not communicate with Mr. Grindstaff about the litigation, nor was he involved in the matter.”
Davis’ last reported expenditure from his campaign finance account was paid to Grindstaff in November 2022. He handed over nearly $11,000 for “legal fees.”
Grindstaff represented Davis as the senator responded to Weglinski’s allegations in 2022, and faced an independent Senate investigation. The attorney wrote and distributed multiple news releases on Davis’ behalf.
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s office, which oversees elections in Utah, initially screened the payment to determine whether it was a personal expenditure in violation of campaign finance laws. The office ultimately did not fine Davis for paying Grindstaff with campaign funds.
While Grindstaff’s motive for donating to Brown shortly after the settlement’s disclosure is unclear, the decision that the state would represent Davis was made before Brown was elected to office.
Typically, the attorney general’s office is not involved in determinations about whether it will represent state employees — that responsibility lies with the Utah Division of Risk Management.
Department of Government Operations spokesperson Jeff Hymas said Risk Management opted to include Davis’ legal costs in its coverage after OLRGC initially reported the complaint, but did not receive a separate request from Davis.
The state can decline to cover the cost of a legal claim against an employee for several reasons, including if it determines the worker’s actions did not occur “during the performance of the employee’s duties” as well as if “the employee acted or failed to act through fraud or willful misconduct.”
Hymas clarified that the state reserved its right to deny coverage if it determined the claim was excluded from the state’s insurance policy, but did not indicate that it was seeking reimbursement from Davis.
Utah would withdraw coverage if a court determines an employee was engaged in misconduct, Hymas said. The settlement seemingly averted that outcome.
“The Division of Risk Management typically doesn’t make this determination at the beginning because there may be relevant information disclosed during the court case,” Hymas wrote in an email.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sonia Weglinski poses for a photograph in Salt Lake City, Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Weglinski is filing a lawsuit after allegedly experiencing sexual harassment during an internship at the Utah Legislature.
‘You can’t keep getting away with this’
The Utah Senate announced shortly after Weglinski’s Instagram post that it would launch an investigation into her allegations.
According to a report published after the probe by law firm Parsons Behle & Latimer, attorneys focused on four accusations against the then-senator: that he played with Weglinski’s feet without consent; that he invaded her personal boundaries; that he showed her inappropriate TV scenes; and that he served Weglinski, who was underage, alcohol.
Concluding that Davis “more likely than not” violated the Legislature’s harassment policies, investigators wrote, “We did not find Sen. Davis to be forthcoming or completely honest during his interview. He made several inconsistent statements and certain of his claims were contradicted by other witnesses.”
In August 2022, Davis told The Tribune that he was “flabbergasted” by the allegations, but confirmed at least one of the incidents Weglinski described in her initial Instagram post — that he rubbed dust off of her bottom without permission.
Weglinski’s attorneys argued Brady shared responsibility for Davis’ conduct toward Weglinski because he assigned a young woman to work with the senator despite Davis having previously been accused of harassment by an ex-legislative staffer. The complaint also referenced Brady’s own comments about female interns, first uncovered by The Tribune.
In a 2013 email exchange with former Republican Rep. Paul Ray about intern assignments, Brady joked about female interns’ physical appearances. Responding to an email from Brady asking if Ray wanted his own — or a “dedicated” — intern, Ray asked, “Dedicated please, is Miss Utah Available?” Brady replied, “Ha ha ha . . . . not yet. I’ve been meeting with our interns and most of our female interns would not be mistaken for Miss Utah.”
The former intern’s experience working for Davis caused “extreme distress,” the complaint said, and “impacted her personal life as well as her educational plans.”
“It’s a new generation, and I am going to stand up for myself,” Weglinski told The Tribune in an interview after filing the lawsuit. “And it’s like what I’m doing with this lawsuit. I’m standing up for myself and for so many other people that experienced this. You can’t keep getting away with this.”
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