A former county commissioner and director of the Solid Waste Department in Cumberland County, Tennessee, was sentenced today to 17 years for sexually assaulting seven women under his supervision at the Cumberland County Recycling Center, officials stated.
Michael Harvel, 61, was previously convicted on nine counts of committing sexual assault. According to evidence introduced at trial – including testimony from 13 women who described Harvel’s sexual abuse – Harvel abused his authority as a county official to sexually assault women who worked under his control at the recycling center, according to authorities.
Officials stated that many of Harvel’s victims were sent to the recycling center to serve court-ordered community service, were required to keep a job as a term of their probation or were otherwise vulnerable because they struggled with substance abuse, were impoverished, or were sole caregivers for their dependents.
The jury convicted Harvel of four counts of sexual assault that included kidnapping, and three counts that included aggravated sexual abuse.
According to witness testimony at trial, Harvel told one victim to stop by his office at the end of the day, purportedly to discuss a job opportunity, then locked the door to his office and orally raped the woman.
He falsely told a second victim that he needed her help with a county work project, drove her to an isolated landfill in the woods, and raped her in a guard shack.
The jury also heard evidence that Harvel covered up his pattern of behavior by threatening his victims and other employees so that they would not report his crimes.
“The defendant abused his official position and authority to deprive the victims of their constitutionally-protected right to bodily integrity,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “While this sentence can’t undo the extraordinary pain and suffering the defendant caused these women, it should send a clear message to public officials they are not above the law and will be held accountable when they sexually assault and abuse people subject to their authority.”
“Michael Harvel is a predator who used his position of authority to victimize vulnerable women,” said U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The FBI Memphis Field Office investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooke Schiferle for the Middle District of Tennessee and Special Litigation Counsel Michael J. Songer and Trial Attorney Laura-Kate Bernstein of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section prosecuted the case.
In 2021, in a separate civil action, the Justice Department secured $1.1 million from Cumberland County to resolve a sexual harassment lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleged, among other things, that Cumberland County failed to take adequate precautions to prevent Harvel, as the director of the county’s Solid Waste Department, from sexually harassing women he supervised.
According to the complaint, Harvel regularly subjected the women to unwanted sexual contact, including kissing and groping and to unwelcome sexual advances.