was 20 years of age and engaged to be married to

Mr. Alan Jones, the recently appointed fire

chief, when Mr. Bryant was hired in June of 1998.

As an accounting clerk, Mr. Bryant had no direct

involvement with me as a function of his job, nor

did I have any direct involvement with Mr. Bryant

as a function of my job, other than taking checks

to his office for his signature. However, Mr.

Bryant immediately became very friendly with me,

initiating conversations with me in his office or

coming down to my office and initiating

conversations which had nothing to do with the

business of the city. With this kind of treatment

to me, I felt that Mr. Bryant was a nice person

and did consider him my friend. I had no reason

to believe that he was not equally friendly to

all city employees at this time. Occasionally,

Mr. Bryant would ask me to go to lunch with him

when Mr. Jones (Alan) was not at work. Both Alan

and I thought no harm with the requests and I

agreed to go to lunch with him a few times early

in his employme nt

with the city. While Mr. Bryant did not take any

inappropriate actions with me at these lunches,

he never would let me pay for my meal, telling me

that I should never tolerate a man making me pay

for my own meal. He would often ask me about my

relationship with Alan and would talk in

generalities about his marriage.

It

did not take long to learn that Mr. Bryant did

not treat all city employees as he treated me.

Although I was not privy to all the circumstances

surrounding some of his actions, enough was

discussed throughout the office that I was glad

that Mr. Bryant did not seem to like me. However,

I did begin to be concerned about Alan. As Mr.

Bryant learned more and more about our

relationship, he began to tell me that I deserved

more than what I was getting, that I could get

whoever I wanted, and I shouldn't settle less

(sic) than what his (Mr. Bryant's) expectations

were for me. On one occasion, Mr. Bryant related

to me the treatment he gives his wife. He told of

how he would take her to nice restaurants, plays

or shopping sprees, and at the end of the night

that he would receive his "reward."

Mr.

Bryant began to make other comments which I felt

were inappropriate, mostly regarding my physical

appearance. I often would ignore his comments or

act naive, as if I did not "get it,"

hoping that perhaps my failure to acknowledge his

remarks would discourage him. He often would

approach me in my cubicle, touching my back or

rubbing my shoulders and he greeted me. Other

employees, including Ms. Grace Scarbrough, Ms.

Betty Pass, Ms. Donna Philips, Ms. Judy Stephens,

were concerned about what they had observed with

Mr. Bryant's obvious affection toward me and

warned me that his actions were not appropriate

and that I should be careful. I continued to

ignore and rationalize the behavior as just

"friendliness" until one day in his

office where a comment greatly bothered me. I was

leaving his office after having Mr. Bryant sign

some checks, when he made a comment about my

physical appearance in the presence of Mr. Rick

Eastin and Ms. Donna Philips of the Police

Department. After Mr. Bryant made the comment, Ms . Philips stated that I was

"just a baby," to which Mr. Bryant

replied, "She's not built like a baby.

Babies aren't built like that." Ms. Philips

just looked at me in disbelief, and I just stood

there, totally embarrassed by the comment. I just

walked out, not knowing what to say. Mr. Bryant

also began to make statements about he and I

going off to do things outside of work. He would

talk about taking me to Lenox Square, shopping

and then to eat at a nice restaurant where he

would "wine and dine" me that way he

said I deserved to be treated. On several

occasions, he asked me if I would like to go with

him to eat or see a movie in the evenings. On one

occasion, when his wife was on an extended trip

out of town, Mr. Bryant told me how lonely he

was, how he just wanted a buddy to spend some

time with, and asked me to come over to his house

to watch a movie and eat popcorn. I did not tell

my fiance, Mr. Jones, about any of these

invitations initially because I did not want him

to take any action which might jeopardize his

career. I thought that as long as Mr. Bryant

liked me that I could tolerate the inappropriate

behavior, rationalizing it the best I could, and

hoping that my consistent excuses for not

accepting these later invitations would cause him

to give up.

One

day I was summoned to Mr. Bryant's office by my

supervisor, Ms. Ellen Jones, and Ms. Lynn Raven,

the finance director. Mr. Bryant told me that

Mayor Wheat had approached him, stating that he

had received some reports of his inappropriate

behavior toward me. While he asked me if his

behavior offended me, he was more inquisitive of

who may have been the individual that went to

Mayor Wheat with this allegation. I was extremely

uncomfortable in this environment was afraid to

let my true feeling about the situation be

evident. It appeared that Mr. Bryant was more

concerned and careful with what I said. I told

him that I did not have any problems and called

Mr. Jones as soon as I was able to get out of the

office. Mr. Jones, concerned with the

uncomfortable position I had been placed in,

called Mayor Wheat to discuss the policy of the

city regarding the investigation of accusations

of this type. Mr. Jones stated that his

conversation with Mayor Wheat was positive and

both agreed that care should be taken in ha ndling situations of this

type, and his concern was more as that of a

department head than as my fiance, wanting to

make sure that future situations may be dealt

with a little differently. At this time, I had

not told Alan of the full extent of Mr. Bryant's

behavior toward me, particularly some of his

persistence in asking me to go with him to

movies, dinner, and specifically, his house.

After

this, I began to become more concerned with Mr.

Bryant and his behavior. I talked to my fiance

about this behavior and my meeting regarding the

report to Mayor Wheat. I confided with Alan about

my concern with my employment, but more

specifically his employment. Alan had previously

told me that Mr. Bryant had taken very little

time with him during his first year and that he

thought that odd, considering he was a new

department head over the second largest

department in the city. Alan also became

concerned because Mr. Bryant never invited

"he and Mandy" to join him in any

activities; the invitation was always made to me

and never included Alan.

Mr.

Bryant did not approach me for a period of about

two weeks after the meeting. After that, Mr.

Bryant would approach me, only when no one else

was around, just to "say hi."

Eventually, Mr. Bryant would again begin to touch

my shoulders as he came up behind her (sic),

rubbing them as he asked how I was doing. I

realized then that I needed to tell Alan about

the full extent of Mr. Bryant's actions. Alan

advised me that I should completely retreat from

any interaction with Mr. Bryant beyond that which

was required of my job. He instructed me to be

polite and courteous to Mr. Bryant, giving him

the respect due his position, but that i had no

obligation to carry the relationship beyond that

of carrying out the business of the city. Alan

stated that hopefully this would remove me from

the environment which had grown uncomfortable,

but if not, we might be forced to explore other

options.

have employed this strategy for approximately

seven months to the present. Mr. Bryant

consistently approaches me, asking what is wrong,

if I am mad at him for any reason, and why did

not I come to talk to him anymore. I would tell

him that nothing is wrong, that I just stay so

busy, and since he got his signature machine,

that I had not reason to come to his office.

These answers did not satisfy Mr. Bryant, as he

insisted that something was bothering me. Mr.

Bryant would even ask me if I was unhappy being

married to Alan and if that was the source of my

withdrawal from him. He continues to question me,

appearing frustrated that our relationship is

that of only business now.

felt that I was somewhat alone in Mr. Bryant's

pursuit of a "more than business"

relationship until I was moved into a cubicle

next to Ms. Sherri Anderson a few months ago. We

have both discovered that we were not alone in

our experiences. Since being moved to the cubicle

next to hers a few months back, we have had

similar experiences, as Ms. Anderson reports Mr.

Bryant's invitations for social engagements, her

rejection of such invitations, and the ensuing

retaliation which has most recently be (sic)

reported. The similarities in our experiences

leads me to believe that my continued rejection

of Mr. Bryant's attempts to reestablish a

personal relationship beyond that required by my

job could likely bring retaliation against me or

my husband.

The

easiest course of action that I could take

regarding this situation is to withdraw my

testimony from this action. My husband and I are

just starting our life together and it would seem

that simply keeping quiet is the best way to

ensure our security. Conversely, the hardest

decision has been to expose these actions and

rely on the system in place to correct this

situation while protecting those victimized. I

must stress that it is not neither my, not my

husband's intention to harm in any way the city

of Fayetteville, through reputation or financial

resources, but to participate in this action as

our duty to protect the city of Fayetteville in

reputation and financial resources. Thank you for

your consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,

Amanda

M. Jones

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