Indianz.Com > News > ‘Friends with benefits’: Former executive of National Congress of American Indians ousted in sexual harassment dispute

‘Friends with benefits’
Former executive of National Congress of American Indians ousted in sexual harassment dispute
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Indianz.Com
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
The chief executive officer of the National Congress of American Indians lost his job over his handling of a sexual harassment investigation, according to documents filed in court here.
Dante Desiderio, who was on the job for barely a year, was not the target of investigation, according to a complaint he filed in the nation’s capital. Instead, it was the non-Indian attorney he hired as NCAI’s general counsel who was accused of making a comment of a sexual nature to a younger woman employee.
Max Muller, according to Desiderio’s lawsuit, suggested he become “friends with benefits” to the employee during her first visit to NCAI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The incident — detailed for the first time in public — marks the second time in four years in which NCAI’s highest-ranking legal official was investigated for sexual harassment. In 2018, non-Indian attorney John Dossett was ousted after Indianz.Com first reported on the allegations that eventually cost him a role he held at the organization for two decades.
And it marks the second time in three years in which the top executive at the largest inter-tribal organization in the United States has been embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal. In 2019, Jackie Pata, a citizen of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes, departed NCAI following a four-month suspension connected to her handling of the Dossett investigation, which itself stemmed from an incident three years prior.
Amid the history of workplace concerns, NCAI acted much more quickly to address employee safety, according to the documents filed in court by Desiderio himself. The former CEO was suspended on the eve of the organization’s first in-person conference of the COVID-19 pandemic on June 10. He was out of a job two months later.
Superior Court of the District of Columbia Documents
Desiderio Complaint and Jury Demand
Desiderio Amended Complaint and Jury Demand
NCAI Motion to Dismiss / Compel Arbitration
NCAI Declaration from Larry Wright Jr / Additional Exhibits
United States District Court for the District of Columbia Documents
NCAI Notice of Removal
NCAI Exhibits
Court Order on Removal of Lawsuit
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