Three women in the Capital Region say they were sexually harassed by a male coworker at the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities in Glens Falls. Now one of them is speaking out.

Mary Tromblee says she just wanted to go to work every day and do her job. Instead in the last nine months alone, she says a male coworker lifted her skirt twice, reached in her blouse to grope her and exposed himself to her — and her bosses did nothing about it.

"This man crossed a line in so many ways within our office," Tromblee said. "He terrorized the office."

Tromblee said for the last two years, she brought incidents of harassment by Chad Dominie repeatedly to her boss, and he was never punished. 

"I asked one day, ‘What would you do if this was your family?’ And she told me what she would do and I said, ‘Well then, why do I do not matter?’ and she said, ‘I’m not concerned about you; I don’t care about you. I care about my job,' " Tromblee said.

Tromblee said her boss, another woman, would meet with Dominie and ask him to do better. He'd stop harassing her for a few days, then it would start again. When Tromblee tried to go above her boss, human resources threatened her, too.

"They kept it very quiet. I was told if I talked about it, I could be punished; they could fine me, they could take my time away. My HR department is the one that threatened me," Tromblee said.

Now she's is fighting back. Tromblee filed a federal suit and is also calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to create an outside oversight committee to review sexual harassment complaints.

"Every lawmaker, Gov. Cuomo — everyone has women that are close to them, they need to think of how they would feel if this was one of their family members that this was happening to, and they need to make the laws according to that," Tromblee said.

The governor's office is looking into Tromblee's situation and issued this statement: "New York State has zero tolerance for sexual harassment in the workplace - period. That's why the Governor passed the strongest sexual harassment laws in the nation and we are currently working with the Legislature to enhance those laws this year. The allegations detailed in this report are absolutely despicable and 100 percent unacceptable, and we fully expect the disciplinary processes to result in appropriate penalties against anyone who has violated the law."

Tromblee's lawyer, Kathryn Barcroft, said they're hoping for some change from the top down.

"There’s been a bill introduced in New York that would address that severe and pervasive standards, so it’s also a concern... there’s such a high hurdle to meet that it’s difficult for victims," Barcroft said. "If you feel that the conduct is unwelcome — which Mary expressed every step of the way; this isn't welcome, he should not be doing this — and it makes you feel uncomfortable, that’s a problem and it needs to be addressed."

Spectrum News reached out to Chad Dominie, who made a harassment claim of his own and added, "Plenty more evidence. I'm innocent."

The Office of People with Developmental Disabilities has suspended him pending a disciplinary hearing and issued this statement: “OPWDD has zero tolerance for harassment of any kind in the workplace. Upon learning of the allegations, OPWDD immediately reported the incident to law enforcement and the accused employee was placed on administrative leave. After an investigation by law enforcement, the accused employee was arrested and charged, and OPWDD suspended him without pay pending the outcome of his disciplinary hearing. With respect to all other effected employees, the agency conducted an investigation, and while some claims were not substantiated, the agency nevertheless took affirmative steps to appropriately discipline and counsel employees involved. As this matter is currently the subject of a pending legal proceeding, the agency is unable to comment further.”

A total of three women have made claims about Dominie, but only Tromblee has come forward publicly.

"Women have to know we are not second-class citizens. We deserve to be protected. We deserve to have our managers listen to us and protect us," Tromblee said. "If you’re not getting the help you need, you need to go over their head, and I know there’s fear for your job — that’s a huge part of this for people, people need their jobs — but you have to make it stop. You have to speak up to make it stop."