Update March 26, 2019 Amanda Barge suspended her campaign for mayor less than 24 hours after our investigation published. Read more here.
Published March 25, 2019
Monroe County commissioner and Bloomington mayoral candidate Amanda Barge is being accused of sexually harassing a county contractor for more than a year.
Noble Guyon | IDS
Brandon Drake sits in his Bloomington home March 19. He alleges that 2019 Bloomington mayoral candidate Amanda Barge sexually harassed him for over a year.
Brandon Drake, 42, alleges Barge repeatedly expressed feelings for him and asked him to date her beginning in fall 2017. Drake said that after harassing him for months, Barge ultimately played a significant role in dismantling the project he worked on for Monroe County.
Her actions, he said, forced him out of his professional community and left him feeling isolated from his colleagues.
“She took away a year of my life,” he said in an interview.
Documents and recordings Drake provided to the Indiana Daily Student show Barge, 46, seeming to admit that she repeatedly crossed a professional line.
Drake gave the IDS hours of recorded conversation between himself and Barge and hundreds of other instances of communication including text messages, emails, Facebook messages and a Google note.
After the IDS approached Barge about the allegations, she released a statement that called Drake a “disgruntled former Health Department contractor who has chosen to take public and private communications out of context to further his personal and political agenda.”
Barge's statement
Read the full statement from Amanda Barge.
Apart from denying she would ever engage in harassment, Barge’s statement did not address specific allegations in this story, which were outlined to her in a meeting Monday.
Barge became angry and shut Drake out professionally when he refused to date her, he said. Texts and emails show he told her he might also have feelings for her in July, but later said her advances made him uncomfortable.
Drake said he felt he could not deny her advances because of his position.
“I was scared that she could destroy my career,” he said in an interview.
He told Barge something similar.
“When you come onto me over and over again with the power that you have in your hands it can be very scary for me,” he wrote to her in an Aug. 2, 2018, email. “We have a lot tied up with our work in the community.”
From: Brandon Drake
Date: Thu, Aug 2, 2018 at 12:55 AM
Subject: My Thoughts
To: Amanda Barge
Amanda,
This is the third time you've done this, I wasn't sure what to say or what to do. Let me share and be open with you: When you come onto me over and over again with the power that you have in your hands it can be very scary for me. We have a lot tied up with our work in the community. This is the third time you've come onto me this year. Let me be clear: I love you as a friend. And I meant it every time I said that I loved you, but I mean it as a friend. I hope that we can keep our friendship. I'm not mad, I just want you to understand.that I want you in my life as a friend. I feel at a loss right now.
--
Brandon Drake
Monroe County Pathways
***
Barge was elected Monroe County Commissioner for District 3 in 2016. She graduated from IU with a degree in gender studies and political science before earning a master’s in social work at the University of Texas at Austin.
She is a licensed clinical social worker and owns her own practice, Amanda Barge Counseling.
Barge is a member of the Monroe County Democratic Women’s Caucus, the Indiana Recovery Alliance and many other organizations. She helped found Indiana’s South Central Opioid Summit and focused resources toward improving addiction services in Monroe County.
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She was married at the time she was allegedly pursuing Drake but told him she was getting divorced. On Aug. 15, 2018, she told him she was legally divorced. She was not.
Drake said he has experienced substance use disorder throughout his life. While struggling with addiction in 2004, he was arrested for battery. The charges were later dismissed. He also pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy in 2006.
He has worked as a drug and alcohol interventionist, recovery coach and public speaker. He founded Keystone Interventions Group and co-founded Courage to Change, a group of sober living houses in Bloomington and Ellettsville, Indiana.
Drake speaks around central and southern Indiana about surviving sexual abuse as a child and how that kind of trauma links directly to addiction. His past, he said, exacerbated the distress Barge’s actions caused him.
Sarah Zygmuntowski | IDS
Amanda Barge, 2019 Bloomington mayoral candidate, holds a press conference Feb. 22 at her campaign headquarters. Barge spoke in response to the State of the City Address given by Mayor John Hamilton on Feb. 21 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
He said Barge had heard him speak about the abuse he endured as a child before the alleged harassment began. When he speaks about childhood trauma, Drake references his own childhood experiences of being raped by men and molested by women.
“The thing about a brain that’s been through trauma is it doesn’t take the same shit it takes a person who doesn’t have that to trigger some kind of episode,” he said in an interview. “She’s a trained therapist. She should’ve known better.”
Drake started off as a supporter of Barge and her work. He wanted her to be mayor. Then, he said, the advances began.
“The thing is I was fucking praying she was who she said she was,” he said in an interview. “I really believed in the Amanda Barge mission.”
***
Barge convinced Drake to spearhead Pathways, a helpline for people struggling with addiction in Monroe County, he said, after he spoke at the first South Central Opioid Summit in September 2017.
Drake left his job as an intervention and recovery coach to start working with the county to structure Pathways in October 2017. Barge told him she was confident she could get enough grant money to fund Pathways, he said.
He alleges she also promised she could give him job security when she was mayor.
“She was always dangling that over my head,” he said in an interview.
Barge first told Drake she had feelings for him in November 2017, he said. He told her he didn’t date married women. Looking back, he now says he should have been more clear that he specifically did not want to date her.
Less than a month later, Drake said, Barge told him she was getting a divorce.
Barge’s campaign website read, “Amanda is a mom, a wife, a gardener and loves hanging out on her porch with her family!” at the time of publication.
Source Bargeforbloomington.com
Screenshot from March 25, 2019
Donyel Byrd, an adjunct professor for the IU School of Social Work, said Drake first told her about what he then called “Amanda’s crush on him” near the beginning of 2018.
“My very first thought was, ‘This is not going to end well,’” Byrd said. “It went from bad to worse.”
Byrd is a colleague of Drake’s. She said it’s been difficult to watch Barge gain so much support from Bloomington’s social work community after hearing Drake’s allegations.
Drake said the next time Barge told him how she felt was over the phone around December 2017, while she was in Indianapolis. When he rejected her, he said she told him he had too many rules in his sex life.
He alleges she also told him she was in love with him during that conversation.
Around February 2018, Drake said, she began accusing him of having sex with some of their mutual acquaintances and colleagues. Byrd said she remembers Drake telling her that Barge accused him of having sex with his therapist.
Drake denies Barge’s accusations.
He said Barge also began acting jealous of women he spent time with and showing up at events he spoke at outside of Monroe County. This, he alleges, continued for months.
“Every time I spoke or did anything she was right there,” he said in an interview. “I felt like it was to watch me.”
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She sent strings of texts and Facebook messages that Drake ignored until business required that he respond. Her messages ended with things such as “That’s all I’m gonna say, promise!” and “I’ll totally give you space and this too shall pass.”
One day, when a volunteer for Pathways wore a dress Barge thought was inappropriate, Drake said she threatened to report the volunteer to the board of social workers. He said he believes this was out of jealousy.
After he told her to stop threatening his staff, he said, things got a little bit better.
Then, in July 2018, Drake was in contract negotiations with the Monroe County Health Department, which owed him money. Barge, he said, was critical to helping him get paid at the time.
On July 26, 2018, just days before a meeting with the health department over the money, Barge texted Drake asking him again to date her.
“I’m not legally divorced but I am functionally divorced,” she wrote. “I feel like you and I have a good connection and I’d like to see where it goes.”
Though she texted that there was no pressure and she was just seeking clarity, Drake said it made him feel powerless and cornered. He said he had by now asked her to stop at least twice.
“I woke up that morning laying in bed thinking I’d have to have sex with her,” he said in an interview. “You never know what it’s like until the day comes that you might have to have sex with the person you’re disgusted by.”
This was the time Drake told Barge he might also have feelings for her. He said he did that to buy himself time. After he texted her back, she sent him 12 messages with no reply.
Byrd said she was worried Drake’s emotional state during that time had deteriorated so severely that he might start using drugs again.
“I was very concerned that his life could be in danger,” she said.
Pathways, Drake said, was crumbling as he fought for grant funding to keep it going. The grants that paid Drake’s salary only lasted through August 2018. When the program started, he said, Barge told him they would find more funding when August rolled around. That didn’t happen.
“Pathways was dead by August,” Drake said in an interview.
Monroe County attorney Dave Schilling said the county and health department both had some difficulties getting Drake to fulfill his contractual obligations.
“We were not happy with his performance,” Schilling said.
Schilling said Drake was not fired and didn’t resign, but the agreement to end the contract was mutual.
With his program gone, Drake was out of a job.
“To some people, it may seem inconsequential, but to him, that’s his income,” Byrd said of Pathways’ downfall. “It was the only thing he had.”
After going without income for months, Drake now works for a book publishing company and runs a halfway house for men.
In September 2018, Drake emailed an attorney asking for advice. He said Barge was still inserting herself into his life.
She was, he said, trying to join the board of a halfway house he founded, showing up unannounced at his out-of-town speaking engagements and more.
Byrd said she remembers seeing Barge become more connected with Drake’s friends, acquaintances and professional contacts on social media during this time.
“It was creepy,” she said.
Drake heard from a friend that Barge was telling people she had to stop working with him because he was unsteady and unreliable.
In reality, he said, he had stopped attending meetings where he might run into her.
“She was passing me off as a crazy person,” he said in an interview. He said he believes she was trying to create an environment where no one would believe him if he ever went public with his allegations.
He said his story might be perceived differently if he was a woman. He often brings that up when telling friends about his time working for the county.
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“How many times does someone get to approach you for romance or sex?” he asked in an interview. “Imagine I was a female dealing with this. Most people would get it.”
He paused.
“I did not want this.”
On Aug. 15, 2018, Barge told Drake his harassment allegations made her decide to not run for mayor.
Six months later, in January, 2019, she announced she was running.
***
Over texts reviewed by the IDS, Barge acknowledged making advances on Drake in August and November 2017.
“I know I shouldn’t put this in writing but so be it,” she wrote in an Aug. 16, 2018, email where she analyzed their personal and professional relationship and why she thought things ended the way they did.
She met Drake at a Steak ‘n Shake on Aug. 15, 2018. While he recorded their conversation, they went over and over the times she expressed her feelings for him.
The letter
Read the full text of the letter Barge read to Drake here.
Indiana has a one-party consent law for recording conversations, meaning Drake’s recordings were created and obtained legally.
“I ate a pot gummy and drunk texted you, and I don’t actually remember, and it’s really embarrassing,” Barge said, reading him a letter where she thanks him for their friendship and then apologizes for her actions.
“I also drunk texted you. I want to take that back.”
Barge talks about her feelings and actions as she and Drake sit in a Steak ’n Shake.
BARGE:“I am sorry that I allowed what could have been a respectful — you know I’m wordy, so you’ve just got to get through it —
DRAKE: You’ve got it, you’re gonna be alright.
BARGE: What could have been a respectful, productive conversation about boundaries and feelings to devolve. I started off communicating clearly. It quickly went off the rails and made things worse. The feelings I had were genuine but I didn’t express them how I wanted to, and I also drunk texted you. I want to take that back. I really — I ate a pot gummy and drunk texted you, and I don’t actually remember, and it’s really embarrassing.
DRAKE laughs
She told him she was sorry. “I will work on having better boundaries with you and just being a better human being.”
She later emailed him the letter she read at Steak ‘n Shake.
"I will work on having better boundaries”
Barge reads a letter apologizing for many of her actions. She later emails Drake the same letter.
BARGE: I’m sorry this didn’t work out. I think we had a good connection no matter what we decided. I hope we can keep working together. I hope we can work towards a friendship again even though it will look different. I am sorry for my actions. I will work on having better boundaries with you and just being a better human being.
Drake told her he went to an attorney to look into legal recourse for sexual harassment. The conversation grew heated as the two walked outside. Drake said Barge climbed into the passenger seat of his truck when he unlocked it to try and find a cigarette.
Once again, he said, he felt trapped.
“I have a lot to lose, Brandon,” Barge said. “If I get sued I will not get re-elected. I will lose my job.”
"I have a lot to lose, Brandon.”
Crying as the two sit in Drake’s truck, Barge tells Drake she will lose her job if he sues her.
BARGE: (Crying) I have a lot to lose, Brandon.
DRAKE: That fucker couldn’t win if he fucking —
BARGE: Not the mayor. I'm not even —
DRAKE: Anybody could run against that fucking guy and win.
BARGE: It’s not that, it’s my current job.
DRAKE: What could you lose there? You’re elected.
BARGE: I fucking love that job.
DRAKE: No one can fire you.
BARGE: I can't get — no, If i get sued, I will not get re-elected. I will lose my job.
Drake said an attorney told him federal employee discrimination law did not apply to him because he was an independent contractor — not an employee — and therefore was not offered sexual harassment protections.
Federal law does not protect independent contractors from this kind of workplace behavior.
Though some states expand on the federal law, Indiana does not. The Monroe County and Bloomington codes do not either.
“I made some mistakes with you,” Barge said during the Steak ‘n Shake meeting. “And the truth is you are not somebody that I should ever be interested in. You’re just not. I shouldn’t have ever allowed myself to even think those thoughts. It’s crazy. Just crazy.”
She repeatedly suggested she might kill herself if he went public.
"I made some mistakes with you.”
Barge tells Drake she shouldn’t have ever been interested in him. Drake tells her he wants her to stop threatening to kill herself so he can leave.
BARGE: I made some mistakes with you. And the truth is you are not somebody that I should ever be interested in. You’re just not. I shouldn’t have ever allowed myself to even think those thoughts. It’s crazy. Just crazy. I’m sorry I have (unintelligible) — I’m s— I can’t even look, like, you look like a totally different person to me right now. I wish that this was different, you know.
DRAKE: I wish that we could go and you wouldn’t threaten to kill yourself so I could leave.
Throughout that meeting, Barge never expressly admitted to “sexual harassment” but said she took responsibility for hurting him.
“I do see that it was inappropriate at that time. I do see that. A hundred percent.”
"I do see that it was inappropriate at that time.”
Barge says she knows her actions were inappropriate. Drake asks her to take responsibility for them.
DRAKE: You can’t see that it’s not appropriate to ask somebody out that has a fucking, that you’re that intertwined with in the middle of while they’re fighting for their fucking life? You don’t — you keep referencing your pain, you keep ref— but you don’t fucking reference mine. And what I was going through at that point. You just, and just like this attorney thing. It’s okay for you to do it, but it’s not okay for me to do it. So that’s why I need you to leave. Because you need to go sort this out with someone else because I’m not letting you sort it out with me.
BARGE: Can I say something? Please?
DRAKE: Yes.
BARGE: I do see that it was inappropriate at that time. I do see that. A hundred percent.
DRAKE: Then if you see that then you would, you would say to me that you are sorry for doing that and you would take responsibility for it and you would walk on. You wouldn’t be asking me questions like, “How do we do this? How do we move—” There’s no questions about it. You acknowledged it, you said you were sorry and we moved the fuck on from it. Sometimes that’s all you gotta do in life is just say “I did that. I shouldn’t have. Sorry. Next.”
In an email she sent him from her personal account the next day, she wrote, “I let myself down, Monroe County government and people in this community including you by sharing my feelings with you. I was wrong and never should have done that.”
“I had terrible boundaries with you,” she wrote.
The email closes, “I’ll miss you oh so much.”
From: Amanda Barge
Date: Thu, Aug 16, 2018 at 10:36 AM
Subject: Follow Up
To: Brandon Drake
Hi Brandon,
I know I shouldn’t put this in writing but so be it. Do what you need to do —I hope this follow up to what I said yesterday helps.
When I recently told you I had feelings for you it stemmed from your message to me about timing and how you said I was a catch and it was bad timing. I started thinking about that and allowed myself to think about us in a different way.
You actually had said to me that you let the health department shit go and you seemed to be in a good place. Regardless of what I thought you were not. And most importantly, I let myself down, Monroe County government and people in this community including you by sharing my feelings w you. I was wrong and should never have done that. I do realize now that the day I told you was the same day as your meeting. Obviously that was dumb on my part.
I hate that you think I wasn’t there for you in meetings when I tried very hard to be. Had I known how important it was to you to be at that last one I would have. Maybe you told me it was and I didn’t catch that. You need to know though that my kids always come before work and I hadn’t had quality time w them and it was crucial. My kids needed me more this summer than in the past for obvious reasons.
There were some meetings I didn’t attend Brandon because I was trying to set boundaries at work. Like ones w you and Jeff. Since I had removed myself from voting on anything to do w you it would have been inappropriate to attend every meeting. I had to set professional boundaries at work. It would actually be highly suspect for me to attend every meeting given that I abstained from voting on anything pathways related. Like approving the contract-I since I abstained I didn’t sign. I do take these things seriously. I thought I told you that but maybe I didn’t.
I take full responsibility for hurting you. I know that my actions set this situation in motion and we are where we are now because of what I said to you. That isn’t the entire reason our friendship has to end but I know that my actions set the wheels in motion.
Since we disagree about November and you said you saved my texts I’d be happy to read them if you send me screen shots or call me and read them to me. I recognize that I may be wrong on this. I deleted all my texts from you during that time. But I do know that I would never ever ever be mad at someone for not sharing my feelings. Disappointed yeah. But getting angry isn’t appropriate. Maybe I was frustrated about the way the convo went. You and I had many intense convos and some that turned to fights. Maybe it started w me saying that and ended up in a fight which is understandable why you would think I’d become angry. I am open to being shown my perspective is wrong and if so please show me so I can learn from it.
I had terrible boundaries with you. That hurt me and probably you too. I walked right into a situation and had horrible boundaries. I won’t do that again.
The dark part of our friendship won—I will absolutely miss what we had and it sucks. I wish that hadn’t happened.
I woke up today and I feel free. I know you said you wouldn’t pursue anything legal and I will choose to believe you. If you do, I would sincerely not want to live anymore knowing I let so many down. I let down a lot of people with my actions and I would never want my kids to know their mom had been accused of horrible things. I’m sure you think I’m not going to do anything bad to myself but I have layers and almost no one knows all the parts of me and yeah you said there is something wrong w me and you’re right. I’m fucked up. You don’t need me in your life.
I think you and I both met at the worst possible times in our lives and hurt each other. Yeah we helped each other too. And sadly, the darkness won. And I won’t debate you that there is something wrong w me. I never said I was easy or had it all together. And really if you decide to share this email or anything w anyone so be it. I am being honest so fuck it.
What I have realized after our conversation last night is that we were both in crisis when we met. We both got needs met from each other —comfort, validation, support. Good things. But I should have had the sense to know that you were really vulnerable and so was I and that was a recipe for disaster. You’re still vulnerable and so am I. The fact that we both jumped head in to working together and being best friends was ridiculous. I saw red flags and ignored them. I blame myself for that too. Not you. I don’t blame you —your journey is yours and mine is mine. Two vulnerable people should not intertwine like that and I should have taken responsibility for my part in going head first into things and just slowed down.
I’m ending our friendship not because of you but because of me. I don’t blame you. I’m not a good friend for you and I’m not capable of being one. A good friend would have recognized what a tough place you were in and anticipated how those texts might be received. I don’t want to hurt you anymore. It kills me not to be your friend and I meant what I said that you were amazing to me and helped me through tough times. And even the last few months while they have been terrible for you we had some fun. I will totally miss that. We had a special way of connecting and it was super fun and made me happy. And I liked making you happy too.
Note that above I took full responsibility. Until last night I didn’t know the timing was so horrible for you. Now I know and if we had talked we probably wouldn’t be here right now. That shows how important it is for us to communicate w each other regularly about work so there aren’t misunderstandings. I was absolutely listening to you last night in the restaurant. I heard every word and agreed on a lot of what you said. I didn’t really freak out until the end.
As far as work, I’ll fake it and I will be contacting you a lot over email feel free to text or email but please do respond. Not responding puts us in a weird place because I don’t know where your head is. Thank you. I have no doubt that if we communicate we can work together. And much of this is temporary and we won’t need to work together as much after September.
You have two contracts w the commissioners office. In terms of the summit, I need to know if you plan to invoice for the final $1500. I’m asking because it appears you removed yourself from social media. And I haven’t heard from you on the email I sent asking you what you wanted to do for the summit. If you want, you could send me an email listing the things you want to do or an email just letting me know if you plan to invoice us. Either way the ball is in your court. I’d just like to know so I know how to communicate w you on that. I don’t care either way what you decide. Obviously I want you to be really involved in the summit but if you do or don’t decide to finish the contract I do not care. I just want to know so we can make sure all goes well.
Please if anything I said felt hurtful write back and check in. I don’t want to contribute to any problems. Also feel free to write back. In fact I would welcome it. It’s hard to detach from a best friendship quickly and I would appreciate your thoughts. I’d like to know what you think. It would maybe help us move on.
I’ll miss you oh so much, Amanda
In October 2018, Drake emailed his attorney that Barge was still trying to involve herself in his business.
In a Nov. 20, 2018, call, one week after Barge launched an exploratory committee to decide whether she would run for mayor, Drake asked her again whether she felt her actions could be interpreted as sexual harassment.
“Do you really want to go down this road?” she asked.
She said she was going through a midlife crisis when she made advances toward him and “shouldn’t have let myself go there at all.”
“I never really thought of us having a power differential,” she said. “I get it now. We did.”
“Do you really want to go down this road?”
In a Nov. 20, 2018, phone call Amanda dodges Drake asking whether she sexually harassed him.
DRAKE: Do you feel like that that could be interpreted as sexual harassment? What happened? By somebody? Not you — by somebody that that happened to?
BARGE: I — do you really want to go down this road?
DRAKE: I don’t know.
BARGE: I don’t really want to, but we can. I don’t — I think that I was interpreting things that you said wrong and I, I basically was going through like a midlife crisis and I fucking went crazy and I shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have let myself go there at all, and I did, and I was fucking up, I was wrong, and it hurt you, and it was — I look back and I realize now when you told me, like, how it made — you did tell me how it made you feel, you know, you did — and I didn’t grasp. I’ve learned a lot from that. Like I’m like, oh? Because I never really thought of us as having a power differential. I get it now. We did.
Add your voice to the conversation. Write to us at letters@idsnews.com.
About this story
This story was reported over the course of two months. Many of the allegations within it are backed up by hours of audio and hundreds of written communications between the involved parties. Indiana has a one-party consent law for recording conversations, meaning all audio recordings were created and obtained legally.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual harassment or abuse, go here for a list of resources.