Admiral of the Navy under examination for waiting to reassign an officer accused of sexual assault at a Christmas party

A Navy Admiral is under review for waiting to fire a staff member after several employees and a civilian complained of being assaulted and harassed at a Christmas party. ;business.

The chief of naval operations, Admiral John Richardson, waited four months to dismiss the officer, the Cmdr. Chris Servello, after receiving allegations that Servello allegedly assaulted a woman and harassed another at a Pentagon Christmas party reserved for the Navy's public affairs officials, in 2016 the office of the 39, Pentagon inspector in a report obtained by NBC News.

Servello, 41 years old and dressed as Santa for Christmas, was accused of slapping a woman on the backside during the party and giving a young officer "long hugs and unwelcome ".

His alleged acts were described as "predatory" and an internal investigation was ordered.

According to the report, one woman told her supervisor that she was "quite upset" after receiving six phone calls and SMS from Servello after the Christmas party.

A second woman then approached to tell the authorities that Servello had given her "uncomfortable hugs" during the evening. She also said at a dinner in 2014 that he would have touched his thigh and asked if they could "get bleeded".

In February 2017, a third woman claimed that Servello had "slapped her buttocks" while he was dressed as Santa Claus at the 2016 Christmas party.

According to the report, Servello reportedly told investigators that he did not remember these incidents and claimed to have sent a text message to the first woman because he was "really worried for her" after they left the party .

The Inspector General noted in the report that senior naval officials had immediately taken action and investigated the allegations, but that Richardson had waited four months before sacking Servello and reassigning him to another role despite written requests to that effect.

"We believe that the failure (of Admiral) Richardson to ensure that (Servello) was expelled from his personal staff in an expeditious manner … sent a wrong message about the seriousness with which (Captain) Richardson took the allegations of sexual harassment "report said.

Richardson acknowledged that in April 2017, he had approved the transfer of Servello to another team, but had not applied it until August 2017. According to the report, Richardson acknowledged that his actions did not allow him to be transferred to another team. were not "fast enough" and that he "could have done it faster". .

"We considered that (the American) Richardson had failed to ensure that (Servello) was removed from his duties as soon as possible, which is a performance problem rather than a problem. Misconduct, "says the report.

As a result of the incident, the Navy has put in place a new policy whereby staff officers being investigated "should be reassigned temporarily out of the way. Staff staff pending the holding of the investigation. "

The Inspector General also recommended that the Secretary of the Navy evaluate Richardson's performance.

In response to the report, Richardson said: "I have learned a lot from this incident and I will use these lessons in the future."