For more than a decade, Iowa legislators and staff members engaged in lewd and sexually aggressive behavior, creating a "toxic" environment and a "culture of secrets" at the state Capitol, according to detailed court depositions reviewed by the Des Moines Register.
The depositions, taken under oath by about two-dozen lawmakers and legislative staffers, comprise more than 1,000 pages of documents previously unreleased to the public. They were part of a landmark sexual harassment case that resulted in the state of Iowa paying a $1.75 million settlement last year.
