A New York state employee sexually harassed his female colleagues for years — grabbing their breasts, exposing his penis to them, loudly rating their outfits, and calling them “whores” — without any significant repercussions from his superiors, three women told the Associated Press.
One woman, Mary Tromblee, says Chad Dominie, 44, lifted her skirt twice, once reached down her top to grab her breast, and exposed himself to her at her desk. She later took a restraining order out against him. Two other women interviewed said that Dominie used explicit language, and would periodically assign their appearance and outfits letter grades from A–F.
“It got to a point where I stopped caring what I look like. I stopped doing my makeup, doing my hair. I gained a lot of weight,” one of the women told the AP. “I would wake up every day thinking ‘what can I do to stop him from bothering me today?’”
They say their office, the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD), did not take action until Tromblee reported in October 2017 that Dominie grabbed her by the arms and threatened to sexually assault her. Although the OPWDD said in a statement that they “immediately reported the incident to law enforcement” and placed Dominie on administrative leave as soon as they heard about the allegations, the women say agency supervisors witnessed Dominie’s behavior, and largely ignored their multiple complaints. The women say that after their complaints, supervisors would call Dominie into their office and tell him to “do better.”
Dominie, an administrative assistant at the agency, told the AP that he was never offended by his own behavior and language. “I’m an old Marine. It was a joke. We were just horseplaying.” He acknowledges engaging in “locker room talk,” watching porn in the office, and providing marijuana to his supervisors, but denies groping the women or exposing himself to them.
“I tell her to ‘shut her whore mouth’ and I’m the big villain?” Dominie said.
Currently, Dominie remains a state employee, pending the outcome of a disciplinary proceeding, though he has been suspended without pay.
