Rep. Bob Hooper, a Burlington Democrat, says he is planning to resign from the Legislature after an internal legislative panel found that he violated the Vermont House’s sexual harassment rules.
That same panel forced Hooper to resign his seat on the House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs this week, although it did not compel him to leave the General Assembly entirely. Hooper’s Democratic colleagues in the House, however, called on him to do just that in a statement released Friday afternoon.
"The House Democratic caucus is committed to providing a professional work environment and has zero tolerance for sexual harassment, discrimination, or any hostile behavior," the joint statement reads.
Reached by phone moments later, Hooper said he had already informed House Speaker Jill Krowinski that he would be submitting his resignation letter on Monday.
“Too late — already did that,” the four-term lawmaker said. Hooper said he was waiting until Monday to formally resign so that he could consult with his lawyer and let his constituents know first.
Hooper’s planned resignation follows an investigation by the House Sexual Harassment Prevention Panel, which is made up of five sitting members of the House. Its deliberations generally take place outside of public view, but the panel can release the identity of individuals who have been found to have violated sexual harassment rules and the corrective action that has been taken.
Krowinski had announced that Hooper had resigned from his committee early Friday morning in an email to House lawmakers following an investigation by the body’s sexual harassment panel.
“I commend the impacted member who filed the complaint,” Krowinski, also a Burlington Democrat, wrote in her email to House. “It was an extraordinarily courageous action to come forward and I’m asking that you give them privacy at this time.”
According to a confidential legal document obtained by Vermont Public, the panel investigated two complaints concerning Hooper. The written agreement, known as a stipulation and consent order, was signed by Hooper and the chair of the panel on Thursday.
According to the order, the panel's most recent investigation started in 2025, after Hooper sent an edited photograph of a complainant to committee members without the complainant's consent and “made inappropriate remarks” in the committee room.
Hooper, in an interview Friday morning, said it was appropriate he’d been asked to leave the committee. But he said he was “perplexed” by the process.
“What is a really good policy for people who are being sexually harassed seems to have been weaponized to some degree,” he said. “The House doesn’t really seem to have a convenient slot for what you would consider uncomfortable work environments.”
The picture and his comments were intended to be jokes, he said, and not sexual in nature.
“I could see how it turned into something that was humiliating. Not sexual — but humiliating,” he said of the picture. He said he apologized at the time.
According to the order, the panel had received an “informal complaint” about Hooper before, in 2022. The panel discussed the complaint with him and resolved the matter at the time according to its informal complaint procedure, the document says.
The order also says that an investigatory report it had commissioned unearthed other “instances of alleged similar conduct” by Hooper that did not result in complaints to the panel or formal action but nevertheless “demonstrate a pattern of conduct.”
Hooper said he wasn’t told who the complainant was in 2022, but that he’d been told he’d gotten too close to someone and said something that made them uncomfortable.
“I don’t think I’m a serial sexual harasser,” Hooper said. He said he just sometimes acted in ways that might be perceived as inappropriate for more formal settings, like the Legislature.
“I make no bones about being sarcastic and a jokester and I come from a family that’s, you know, touchy. It’s kind of like ‘This is not the place.’ And sometimes that’s lost,” he said.
