Fired Rep. Matt Manweller refutes sexual misconduct allegations in CWU report

A week after Central Washington University fired former political science professor and 13th Leg. Dist. Rep. Matt Manweller (R-Ellensburg) for inappropriate conduct, the university released the 85-page report summarizing the investigation it has conducted into Manweller’s background.

However, Manweller refutes all of the alleged inappropriate action described in the documents, claiming that the university and investigator, Trish K. Murphy of Northwest Workplace Law, blew everyday events out of proportion in order to come up with salacious stories.

Manweller, who is running for re-election to the Legislature this November, told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson that he believes that the university wanted him gone on whatever charge they could find because his conservative political beliefs did not sit well in a liberal academic world.

RELATED: Report on Rep. Manweller describes inappropriate behavior with students

“Central Washington University, after eight months of investigation and $120,000 on a private investigator, did not conclude that I violated any of the sexual harassment statutes in the faculty code,” Manweller said. “I think your listeners should know that they had to terminate me on a technicality.”

He is currently suing the university for wrongful termination.

According to the investigation documents, 15 students or former students — all female — expressed serious concerns about Manweller’s behavior toward them on different occasions.

In one allegation from 2009, during a meeting in his office with a student who was concerned about her grades, Manweller leaned toward her, put his hand on her knee, and said, “There’s always a way for you to get an A in this class.” According to the report, the student interpreted this to mean that she could earn an A if she performed sexual favors for Manweller.

RELATED: Manweller placed on leave over allegations

Manweller explained that the student had missed many classes because her child was seriously ill and she had to commute back and forth to Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

“She did come to me in tears and say, ‘Look, I’ve missed so much class, I think I’m gonna fail,'” Manweller recalled.

He said that he comforted the woman and assured her that she could still attain an A if she worked hard.

“I’ve told tons of students, ‘You can still pass, you can still get an A,’ most of them men, and no one has ever taken it as anything more than encouragement,” he said.

He also pointed out that because of the size of the desk in his office, there was no way that he could have put a hand on the woman’s knee unless he “had eight-foot arms.”

According to the investigation documents, however, Manweller did not sit across from the student, but rather moved his chair to sit on her right side.

According to another allegation from 2004, he told a 17-year-old high school student taking Running Start classes at CWU that his wife was currently out of town and he could take the student to a movie that weekend. The student reported that he gave her his number on the back of a business card.

Manweller said that he remembered neither the conversation nor that particular student, noting that he could not possibly remember every conversation that he had had in 14 years.

“I don’t recognize the name, I don’t recognize anything about it,” he said.

According to another allegation, taking place between autumn 2015 and spring 2016, a student babysat for Manweller. The report states that Manweller complimented her yoga pants, told her that she was a “10,” joked that she could spend the night at his house, and initiated hugs whenever she left his house that sometimes resulted in his hand lingering on her lower back.

On one occasion, according to the report, Manweller gave the student a glass of wine and sat on the couch with her, inching closer to her until his hand was on her knee. The student stated in the report that she was so upset, she cried the entire way home.

Manweller said that this student was “almost part of our family,” and that “nothing inappropriate ever happened.”

In a video on his YouTube page, Manweller laughed that “if you’ve ever babysat my kids, after about five hours, you deserve a glass of wine.”

Furthermore, he said that he was not even living in Ellensburg at the time that the problematic interaction allegedly took place.

Other allegations included in the report include common themes of Manweller “body-scanning” or staring at the bodies of female students, following students and giving them unwanted attention, and commenting on students’ looks or outfits.

Manweller said that multiple women have come forward to Manweller and signed affidavits that the investigator put words in their mouths.

“We plan on deposing all of these women … We think we’re going to be vindicated when those depositions are over,” he said.