Wyandotte County candidate for Kansas House accused of sexual battery in 2020

Police in Kansas City, Kansas, are investigating a sexual battery reported two years ago at a nonprofit by Nelson Gabriel, a Democrat running for an open seat in the Kansas Legislature.

Erika Brown, who says she is the former chief operating officer of Gabriel’s nonprofit, told The Star she made the report after Gabriel groped her in the office on June 8, 2020.

Gabriel is the CEO of Made Men, a KCK nonprofit that provides adult education. He is running against Marvin Robinson in the Democratic primary for House District 35 in northeast Wyandotte County, a safe Democratic seat.

“If people do choose to vote him into office, I think that they should know who they’re voting into office,” Brown said in an interview Tuesday.

Gabriel denied Brown’s sexual battery allegations. He also insisted she was a volunteer, not an employee.

A police spokeswoman said she could not confirm the identity of the victim or alleged assailant in the report related to Gabriel’s organization’s address. The police report redacted the victim’s name from the report, but left the initials E. R. B., which Brown said were her initials.

No action has been taken on the report in several months, police said. But after The Star inquired about the report, the spokeswoman said, a detective had contacted the victim to arrange a meeting. Brown told The Star that she is scheduled to meet with the detective in her case on Thursday.

Brown, who has a doctorate in education, told The Star she began working for Gabriel in May of 2020. Almost immediately, he began making inappropriate comments and sexual inuendos before eventually assaulting her in June of that year, she alleged.

Brown accused Gabriel of grabbing her buttocks in the office while whispering in her ear, “oooh doc,” in a complaint filed in September 2020 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal office designed to enforce laws against workplace discrimination.

“All of it was overstepping,” Brown said of Gabriel’s behavior. “I didn’t call him on it until it was so blatant… It’s like I was literally and figuratively backed into a corner.”

In her EEOC complaint, Brown said Gabriel fired her in August of 2020 because she refused to teach classes in-person citing COVID-19 concerns. She stated in the complaint that she believed she was actually fired because she rejected Gabriel’s advances.

“On the phone I informed Mr. Gabriel that ‘the real reason I’m working from home is because you grabbed my ass’ to which Mr. Gabriel replied, ‘you know you wanted it,’” Brown wrote in the complaint.

The address and date Brown provided to the EEOC matched the details in the Kansas City, Kansas, police report.

Brown said her complaint with the EEOC went nowhere. She told The Star she had made a handshake deal with Gabriel that she would be paid once funds came in, but she never received a dime for her work.

Gabriel made an unsuccessful run for the Legislature in 2020, losing in the primary.

The Star originally reached out to Gabriel about the allegations in 2020 following his initial run for the Kansas House. Reached again on Tuesday, he referred The Star to his comments from that time.

“I stand by those responses that were given to you then and it still remains a non-issue with me. We have dealt with that situation and that’s where it stands,” he said in a phone call.

In emails in 2020, Gabriel denied the allegations.

“These accusations are false and I categorically deny,” Gabriel said in an email at the time. “I would also question why Dr. Brown would use Made Men as a reference and continue to contact me if her allegations were true.”

Brown said she has not used Gabriel as a reference but has included his name on her resume as her former supervisor.

Gabriel’s criminal convictions

In addition to Brown’s allegations of sexual misconduct, Gabriel has had consistent legal troubles in the past two decades, including at least six felony convictions for financial crimes.

According to court records, Gabriel was sentenced to more than a year in prison in 2003 on concurrent sentences for financial crimes in Johnson and Wyandotte counties.

He was convicted in Wyandotte County of felony identity theft and passing a worthless check. In Johnson County, he was convicted of three counts of making a false writing, a Kansas felony that applies when someone makes false entries “with intent to defraud, obstruct the detection of a theft or felony offense or induce official action.”

In 2012 Gabriel pleaded guilty to a felony theft that occurred in 2010, according to court records. The records don’t give a clear description of the theft besides that it involved property valued between $1,000 and $25,000. Gabriel was sentenced to 11 days in jail for the crime.

Gabriel remains eligible for office despite the convictions because he has served his entire sentence on each count.

In a statement read over the phone, Gabriel acknowledged the criminal history.

“I have served my time and I have redeemed myself and my community and I have served my community well in spite of it,” Gabriel said. “I’m going to continue to fight for the people who have issues like me and I’m going to serve in that capacity to show others that despite what life has thrown your way you can redeem yourself and do better.”

More recently, Gabriel was cited for contempt of the Johnson County District Court at least twice for failing to respond to court orders after a lawsuit was brought against him for overdrafting more than $5,000 from a Cornerstone Bank account associated with the Made Men nonprofit.

The case stretched from December 2018 until April 2021 as Gabriel repeatedly failed to appear in court and respond to requests even after the judge ordered him to repay the bank, according to court records.

Speaking to The Star, Gabriel said he was unfamiliar with the lawsuit and contempt citations.

“Whatever it is, I’ve dealt with it,” Gabriel said. “It is what it is. We all have life situations and we deal with it.”