A City of Madison investigation initially found that Alderman Charles Myadze unlawfully harrassed a fellow Alder and created a hostile work environment for her, but a supplemental report retracted that finding and determined Myadze’s conduct, while “troubling” and “odd,” did not in fact violate any city policies.
Additional allegations from two other women were “not sustained” in the initial report, though investigators found that the women were credible and Myadze was less so.
Both the initial report, completed August 9 by Milwaukee-based OVB Law & Consulting, and the supplemental report, dated October 24, were made public Wednesday. Both are redacted and do not include the names of the women who made the complaints. However, Alder Juliana Bennett confirmed to Madison365 that she is the complainant whose allegations were found to constitute harassment in the initial report.
Two other women reported repeated and unwanted sexual advances. One complainant, a city employee, said she had to spend much of her time at a conference in Portland, Oregon, alone in order to avoid Myadze. The other, a nonprofit executive, alleged that Myadze made lewd comments and gestures, and grabbed her hand and forced her to feel his bicep, among other allegations.
Investigators found both of those complainants credible, but concluded that their experience did not fit the definition of sexual harassment outlined in city policy or state law.
Bennett said she filed a complaint in April 2024 alleging that Myadze made several inappropriate and sexually charged comments toward her during a conference in Washington, DC, in March 2022. After she confided in colleagues about those comments, she alleged that he locked her in his car on April 7, 2022, and forcefully confronted her, threatening retaliation if she continued telling people about the comments he’d allegedly made. She told investigators she felt “frozen” in the moment.
In an interview Wedneday, Bennett told Madison365 that he made a “clear threat … that if I were to go public about this, or if I were to ever speak about it again, he would retaliate against me on council.”
The initial investigative report found that Myadze had created a hostile working environment for Bennett in violation of city policy, but that the conduct did not constitute sexual harassment as defined by city policy or state law.
In response, Myadze and his attorney provided text messages depicting a cordial working relationship between him and Bennett. In the supplemental report, investigators note no hostility between the two in their text messages, even noting that Bennett sent a text message to Myadze wishing him a merry Christmas.
Bennett said the threat allegedly made in Myadze’s car prompted her to keep a good working relationship and kept her from speaking any more about it. She decided to file the complaint after Myadze’s former girlfriend Michelle McKoy and ex-wife Jamie Johnson came forward with allegations that Myadze had physically abused them both. Myadze denied those allegations.
Myadze’s attorney told investigators that the timing of the three complaints, all of which came after those allegations became public, “was not coincidental but part of a broader, coordinated effort to tarnish Myadze’s reputation.”
Bennett disputed that characterization.
“It’s because one person had the courage to come out and speak out against your actions, that other people had courage to come out and say things too,” she said.
Due to the cordial relationship Bennett was able to maintain with Myadze, and the timing of Bennett’s complaint, investigators modified their conclusion to find that Myadze did not violate and city policy and that Bennett did not experience a hostile work environment.
“They found this did happen. This was really wrong,” Bennett said. “And still, because of the law, we cannot find against Charles.”
She said she was unaware of the other two complaints included in the investigation until she received a copy of the report Tuesday.
“I went into the process not expecting anything, just because we know as a society that abusers don’t get held accountable,” Bennett said.
In a statement Wednesday, Common Council president Yanette Figueroa Cole said the investigation uncovered “an unwelcome pattern of bullying, repeated aggressive behaviors, and creating an unacceptable power imbalance.”
Myadze did not respond to a request for comment.
