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Senior Secret Service supervisor suspended on sex assault accusation

Xinhua, April 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

A senior U.S. Secret Service supervisor has been put on leave pending official investigation of sex assault accusation by a female subordinate, a U.S. newspaper reported Wednesday.

The supervisor, Xavier Morales, was accused of making unwanted sexual advances as they returned from a party at a downtown restaurant to their office at the agency headquarters on the night of March 31, the Washington Post reported on its website.

The party was held to celebrate Morales's new assignment as head of the agency's field office in Louisville, a post that is believed to be an agency steppingstone, the report said.

The Washington D.C. police's sex-crimes unit and the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, which is overseeing the Secret Service, are investigating the female agent's allegations against Morales, a manager in the security clearance division.

The agent alleged that Morales told her at the party the he was in love with her and would like to have sex with her. She said she struggled with Morales when he tried to kiss her and grabbed her arms.

Morales was put on indefinite administrative leave last week and was prohibited from entering his office, as his security clearance was suspended.

"The Secret Service is an agency that demands that our employees conduct themselves with the highest level of integrity. These allegations as reported are very disturbing," Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy said in a statement.

This was the second time in about a month that the Secret Service, which is charged with protecting current and former national leaders and their families and visiting heads of state, has been involved in a scandal.

Two senior agents reportedly rammed an agency car into a White House barricade on the night of March 4 at the scene of an investigation into an active bomb threat.

Clancy, former head of the presidential protective division, succeeded Julia Pierson as Secret Service head after the latter was forced to resign last October after a series of security lapses and scandals in the agency, including a breach of the White House by a knife-wielding man who ran deep into the mansion. Enditem