Jesse Scheckner
Sen. Tom Wright’s hostile actions toward a Volusia County domestic violence shelter that culminated in him aggressively touching a worker there this month merit a “full and transparent investigation,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried says.
Fried called reports of the incident and other alleged improprieties by the New Smyrna Beach Republican dating back more than half a decade “damning.”
“There is no excuse for Sen. Wright to lay a hand on anyone, much less a woman working to protect her clients at a shelter for abused women,” she said in a statement Friday. “And the additional reports about his prior attempts to flirt with young clients at that same shelter — involving discussion of prostitution and offers of expensive trips — are truly sickening.”
On Sept. 2, Wright was caught on video angrily confronting and at one point putting his hand on a woman worker much smaller than him at the Beacon Center, the only domestic violence shelter in Volusia County.
The worker was later identified as then-CEO Jessica Rivers, a domestic violence survivor herself. She resigned days later after the Domestic Abuse Council, which oversees the Beacon Center’s operations and has undergone a significant leadership shift in recent weeks, demoted her.
The altercation marked the most recent trouble involving the Beacon Center and Wright, who in 2021 filed a complaint with the Office of Inspector General alleging the center was being used for human trafficking, prostitution and drugs.
Rivers’ immediate predecessor as CEO, Angie Pye, said those allegations were proven to be unfounded. She told the Orlando Sentinel that Wright, a former member of the shelter’s board of directors, also interfered with its private funding and had engaged in “flirty or grooming type of behavior” toward a resident years before.
On Sept. 2, Wright was at the Beacon Center as part of a planned tour of the building with the Division of Children and Families (DCF). State confidentiality statutes require the identity protection of domestic violence shelter residents and, accordingly, the women and children there were boarded onto a pair of buses to be taken off site during the tour.
Witnesses say Wright attempted to board one of the buses when Rivers told him he wasn’t supposed to in order to protect the residents’ identities. Video footage shows Wright stepping off the bus and placing his right hand on or near the shoulder or chest of Rivers, who appears far smaller than him.
After stepping away for a few seconds, he then charged back at Rivers, prompting another woman later identified as an employee of Linda Parker, CEO of the Broward-based nonprofit Women in Distress, to intervene and stand between them.
According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Wright told police he had been trying to speak with the bus driver, not the vehicle’s passengers, and that Rivers “continued to scream at him.” He said he “placed his hand on her shoulder and advised her again, he was not going on the bus.” The worker told police Wright spoke to her “in an aggressive manner,” lunged at her and touched her without her permission.
Parker’s employee told police Wright refused to de-escalate the situation. Parker called Wright’s actions inappropriate.
“That is not behavior we want to see from any sitting Senator,” she told the Sentinel.
Wright then conducted the tour as planned. While he was in the building, Rivers remained in a part of the facility he wasn’t visiting and called the police.
Officers from the Daytona Beach Police Department arrived shortly after, issued him a warning for trespassing and ordered Wright off the property “until further notice,” the News-Journal reported.
He told the outlet later, “This is the thanks I get for trying to help DCF in The Beacon Center, and yet nobody but nobody today other than Carmen stood up for me and said no that isn’t what happened. So I can’t stand up for you all anymore and I wish you all the best.”
Wright was referring to Carmen Ruiz, the Chair of the Domestic Abuse Council and a reported Wright ally.
Pye, Valerie Brooks, the shelter’s former program manager, and several members of the Domestic Abuse Council resigned late last month. Pye, who had led the shelter since 2016, said she quit amid hostilities with Ruiz.
She told the Sentinel the Sept. 2 incident wasn’t unique and that Wright had been confrontational with staff over the past few years.
Jessica Moore, who worked as the shelter’s program director until 2021, told the News-Journal of an encounter during a 2016 Christmas party, when she said he behaved toward her similarly to how he acted in the video.
She said Wright, who at the time was about two years taking his Senate seat, had worked as a volunteer at the shelter despite not being vetted. She chalked the anomaly up to his being “a guy with lots of money (who) wanted to help.”
Wright’s Senate financial disclosure form shows he has a stated worth of $35.6 million.
A domestic abuse survivor who stayed at the shelter six years ago named Shelby Dunlap recounted to the News-Journal this week about an experience she had in 2017 with Wright during a bus evacuation ahead of Hurricane Irma.
Dunlap said Wright rode on the bus with shelter residents, adding that she believes he paid for the trip. At one point, she told the News-Journal, he talked about prostitutes in Cuba, topless women on a boat and offered to fly her to Las Vegas.
Nothing else untoward happened, she said, but she found the situation “kind of embarrassing,” and “now I realize, you know, he was a creep.”
Dunlap was around 20 years old at the time. Wright was in his mid-60s.
Pye, then about a year into her tenure as CEO, heard about the encounter, which she said “wasn’t anything egregious” but was still alarming enough that she took steps to prevent it from happening again.
“It was flirty or grooming type of behavior,” she told the News-Journal. “So, I put a stop to him coming on the property. He got really angry.”
Fried called on Senate President Kathleen Passidomo to investigate Wright, who until last year served on the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee.
“This is yet another example of a powerful man using that power to manipulate women — a problem that seems pervasive in today’s Republican Party,” she said. “We demand that President Passidomo conduct a full and transparent investigation into Senator Wright’s actions — the women of Florida deserve nothing less.”
12 comments
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September 22, 2023 at 2:36 pm
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Earl Pitts American
September 22, 2023 at 2:54 pm
As I, Earl Pitts American, read yet another Nikki F. FL Dem. Party presser I am reminded of the parable of the little boy who “called wolf”.
Yawn … Yawn …. Yawn ……… but Mom , said little Early, I, Little Early Pitts American, heard this “Boy Called Wolf” story read to me hundreds of times before ….. boy calls wolf ….. the wolf is never there ……. boy keeps doing it until the villagers will never believe him again ……. then one day a real wolf attacks the boy ….. boy calls wolf ….. no one believes him ……. wolf eats boy ….. villagers wonder where the boy went ….. villagers live happly ever after with no annoying boy always calling “wolf”.
So America, I, Earl Pitts American, dont know why I always think of this instructive parabel from my youth each time I see yet another annoying FL Democratic Presser from Nikki F.
I dont know why, I just do.
Thank you,
EPA
My Take
September 22, 2023 at 5:44 pm
GOP — Gaggle Of Predators
Especially the rich ones.
Like Trump.
Elmo
September 22, 2023 at 6:28 pm
The nerve of that entitled SOB.
Mickey
September 22, 2023 at 10:24 pm
This is the most ridiculous story ever. Nikki Fried and the woman at the should all be ashamed of themselves. This women is one of those radical far left feminist who is so traumatized by men and hate men so much that she acts out ridiculously if a man is even in her space. This was made up whole cloth by thus women. If anyone have ever met Senator Thomas you’d know that he’s one of the kindest men you’d ever meet .And here comes Nikki Fried doing that same silly stuff she did in Tallahassee to get her arrested believing it will help her raise money for the Florida Democratic Party. This man I’m now way ” aggressively” approached this woman. If you knew him, you woumd know he touched her to talk sense into her and hopefully calm her down,but I’m sure he didn’t know the whole act he was encountering. This is a sad hit job that sells newspapers woth no truth to it. Has anyone who knows this woman spoke up to say how crazy she actually is? Its like Democrats blaming the governor on a baker acted racist for murdering folk. They did that while blacks are killing blacks in that town everyday. Democrats have become the real party of lies….anything to get foolish folks who ask no questions to rally around the lies without asking real questions about black on black murder. This is indeed a silly story of a none event that is completely made up
Mickey
September 23, 2023 at 7:22 am
Correction ” Senator Wright”….” The Beacon Center
Mickey
September 23, 2023 at 7:55 am
This is the most ridiculous story ever. Nikki Fried and the woman at the should all be ashamed of themselves. This women is one of those radical far left feminist who is so traumatized by men and hate men so much that she acts out ridiculously if a man is even in her space. This was made up whole cloth by thus women. If anyone have ever met Senator Wright you’d know that he’s one of the kindest men you’d ever meet .And here comes Nikki Fried doing that same silly stuff she did in Tallahassee to get her arrested believing it will help her raise money for the Florida Democratic Party. This man I’m now way ” aggressively” approached this woman. If you knew him, you would know he touched her ( as he would simply reach out and touch any one.. just how he is) to talk sense into her and hopefully calm her down,but I’m sure he didn’t know the whole act he was encountering. This is a sad hit job that sells newspapers with no truth to it. Has anyone who knows this woman spoke up to say how crazy she actually is? Its like Democrats blaming the governor on a baker acted racist for murdering folk. They did that while blacks are killing blacks in that town everyday. Democrats have become the real party of lies….anything to get foolish folks who ask no questions to rally around the lies without asking real questions about black on black murder. This is indeed a silly story of a none event that is completely made up. This man should not be slandered with this made up silliness… now co opted by a Democrtatic leader who just simply dont have anything else to offer.So now what? She’ll start raising money off of this? My gawd.. what a con and a slander.
My Take
September 23, 2023 at 8:06 am
You likely excuse rapist Trump too.
Charlotte Greenbarg
September 23, 2023 at 1:00 pm
How about we investigate something real, as Fried and her then-boyfriend’s connection to the cannabis industry during her time in office when she regulated it.
Earl Pitts American
September 23, 2023 at 8:08 pm
Excellant point there, Charlotte G.
I Earl Pitts American, am aware that you have demonstrated some left leaning pontifications in prior postings. But as you know I, Earl Pitts American, never hold that against anyone.
Charlotte, on the DL I can share with you the reason behind what appears to be a total political conundrum which many “Republicans” would rather I, Earl Pitts American, would not blow up in a public forum … but Charlotte, I am a friend and ally to everybody who is a mover and shaker in politics.
So Here’s The Poop:
Back in the day Nikki was just Nikki. Her and her scrumpy buddy boyfriend (whose marital status is totally irrelevant) had no political asperations whatsoever. Their only life focus was wooing anybody with big money to invest in some select “weed” business’ futures to get in on the ground floor of Florida’s not yet approved by legiation “weed” entities.
She and her scrumpy buddy boyfriend (whose marital status is totally irrelavent) again were very good at bringing in big money from various investors without regard to the investor’s political leanings.
Now techinacally most readers get my drift, can smell the truth I’m putting down, and your correct …. much of the investments came from big name Republican family money – many of the big names everyone knows.
There Dear Charlotte, is a political blow-it-up and get your 15 minutes of fame and glory story you might just want to look into and report on. I, Earl Pitts American, can not blow it up myself because of some business committments of my own. But there it is Earl’s gift to you my dear.
Do with Earl’s Big Reveal as you please.
EPA
It’s Complicated
September 24, 2023 at 8:49 am
It sounds like Wright does not have a true understanding of the experiences of women and children in a shelter, and what led them to be there. Dealing with people who’ve recently faced trauma, abuse, and may be living in fear for their lives takes training and sensitivity.
Sonja Fitch
September 25, 2023 at 3:17 am
It ain’t complicated! Hostile violence against any human, man, woman or child
Is Fing wrong!! Get out sir!
Comments are closed.