A former aide to an upstate legislator has filed a human rights complaint accusing his boss of ordering him to wear a leprechaun costume and pull a candy wagon in a parade, according to a report.
Kris Thompson also claimed that state Sen. Daphne Jordan fired him as her chief of staff after he declined to attend a campaign strategy meeting at an eatery in Halfmoon, NY, the Albany Times Union reports.
The longtime state Senate GOP aide alleged that Jordan violated his “basic human rights,” according to the paper, which cited the complaint filed Aug. 20 with the state Division of Human Rights.
It was unclear whether Jordan’s office had reported receiving the complaint about a month after she canned Thompson in mid-July.
“I felt that my direct supervisor (Jordan) violated my basic human rights by directing me to wear clothes not befitting a 61-year-old grown man,” Thompson’s complaint states.
“Dressing me up as a leprechaun is wrong. A supervisor, let alone a sitting state senator, should exercise better judgment than to send such images to a subordinate. I refused to wear the clothes to the parade,” it adds.
The filing includes copies of multiple text messages exchanged by Thompson and Jordan, including one she sent last March to the aide and another staffer, Laurie Huneau, that included online images of leprechaun clothing.
“Wig and hat for Kris when he is pulling the candy wagon,” the text message attributed to Jordan says, adding: “Suit to go with it.”
Along with an emoji of a four-leaf clover, Huneau texted back, “I’m sure that’s exactly what he was planning to wear,” according to the documents cited by the Times Union.
The texts also include messages that Thompson — who served as press secretary for former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno — sent to Jordan explaining his reasons for not wanting to attend a campaign fundraising meeting at the Halfmoon Diner.
Thompson said that when he went to the diner several years earlier for breakfast, employees there “spoke badly about Sen. Bruno and told me to my face that he was corrupt.”
Bruno was found guilty of fraud in a federal criminal trial, but after a successful appeal, he was acquitted at his second trial in 2014.
In his text message to the senator, Thompson wrote that he vowed after that experience to “never step foot in there again.”
“Maybe you need to get over it,” Jordan texted him back. “They did not like me at all or the Halfmoon Republicans, but I have been working on changing that. … I am looking towards them to possibly do food for Greek Fest … esp. since they provide it for St. Basil’s (in Troy) and are big contributors.”
Their written exchanges then grew more fiery.
“Let me be perfectly clear. I’m not stepping foot in there. Ever,” Thompson wrote. “And keep pushing and I will resign from fundraising and your campaign for re-election. Let me know how that works for you.”
She responded: “Why would you eliminate … people that could help bring the Greek community to me?”
Thompson then texted her a request to let him know to whom he should pass information he had compiled for fundraisers.
“Whoever the next chief of staff is I suppose if that’s how you want it,” Jordan responded.
According to Thompson’s human rights complaint, he viewed her remark as a “threat to my career and ability to support my family.”
Jordan’s spokesman Joshua Fitzpatrick said in a statement that the “allegations are baseless and wholly without merit. And frankly, it’s very sad that a disgruntled and terminated employee would lie in such a manner.”
Thompson declined to comment when contacted by the paper Wednesday.