By Guy Page
Rep. Robert Hooper (D-Burlington) told VDC he plans to submit his resignation to House Speaker Jill Krowinski by 5 PM this afternoon, Monday March 16, in the wake of a Friday, March 13 announcement that the House Sexual Harassment Prevention Panel concluded he engaged in sexual harrassment of a fellow member of the Vermont House.
For the first time since Friday, in a Monday afternoon phone interview with VDC, Hooper has gone on the record to explain – from his point of view – what happened. It has to do with a female fellow House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee member rolling around the floor of their committee room in Room 10 of the State House.
During the 2025 session, committee members noted that a fellow committee member’s dress was the same color as the rug of the committee room. Others mentioned it to her. To illustrate the rug/dress color coordination, Hooper said, the member got down on the floor of the committee room and rolled around – all apparently in good, collegial fun. Nothing sexual intended.
Hooper, 74, has worked as a photographer in years past. He has contributed many photos to Sen. Alison Clarkson’s popular photo montage, displayed in the Cedar Creek Room at the end of every session. In a Monday afternoon telephone interview, recorded with his permission, Hooper picks up the story:
“So anyway she’s laying on the floor. A committee member said to me, well after the fact cuz this went back 10 months, that she had asked for somebody to take a picture. I don’t know who did besides me but I suspect there were other people, because phones abound.
“So there’s this picture of her lying on the floor. We have a committee text page. 11 people, that’s the exposure, and that’s where it was supposed to end up.
“So about a week later I’m fiddling around my phone and try to substitute a beach, so you would have this individual not lying on an ugly rug but lying on a beautiful beach, right? When I tried to transfer the picture of the individual….[it removed the rug background, but did not replace it with anything. The photo thus depicts] somebody that looks like they were floating around in space posing somehow.
“Yeah it was weird. I realized right away. I tried to get it back but that exceeded my ability to manipulate a computer.”
That’s when things took a very awkward turn.
“The conversation I think in the committee got to the sexual harassment thing, because you created, you know, an uncomfortable work environment but the bottom line was what got published was the picture itself.”
VDC asked Hooper: did the photo have a sexually suggestive vibe?
“I can’t say that it did,” Hooper said. “I mean, you know, it’s a woman in a dress laying on the floor. They alluded to the fact that I had turned it into something sexual by taking the background out. That’s how they got to sexual harassment.”
10 months and a panel finding later, Hooper finds himself a former lawmaker kicked off a committee and asked to resign the House by his caucus peers.
What now?
Hooper said he feels relieved – no longer walking on eggshells, able to give more time to volunteer work with state retirees, and in effect retiring for the second time.
He noted that a colleague said the State House feels like a ‘dangerous place’ sometimes. “I feel like a lot of older gentlemen on the other side of the aisle feel that way. I have never felt that way.”
“It’s been clearly demonstrated that Dems are quick to eat their own, contrary to information notwithstanding,” Hooper said. “I don’t think I will be a guest at too many parties anymore.”
The only Democrat to speak to him directly after the story broke was Rep. Shawn Sweeney of Shelburne. Sweeney signed the letter and agreed he should resign, but Hooper said he respected Sweeney for actually approaching him. “The only one,” Hooper repeated.
It is not known which female member of the committee was in the photo – Hooper didn’t want to say, and Krowinski asked members to respect the member’s privacy.