PORT CLINTON — She claimed it was her responsibility to speak up, but the regret will haunt her forever.
“My whole world caved in,” said Rebekah Huskey-Archacki, a former Port Clinton firefighter and emergency medical technician. “This has ruined my life, and the backlash from the community was the worst part of it.”
Ms. Huskey-Archacki, 34, is discussing the response she has received from the Ottawa County community and Port Clinton firefighters over the last few years after accusing Kent Johnson, then the Port Clinton fire chief, of sexual harassment, including touching and making sexually charged comments at work and via text messages.
As a result of the accusations, Port Clinton city leaders asked Johnson, 66, to resign as fire chief in December 2023. Ms. Huskey-Archacki resigned months later, citing retaliation at work after filing a lawsuit.
Johnson, who will be sentenced on Friday in Ottawa County Common Pleas Court, faces up to 21 months in prison and a fine of up to $6,500. He also must pay $4,000 in restitution to the city of Port Clinton for four $1,000 stipends he received in violation of a city policy he wrote himself.
On July 24, a grand jury in Ottawa County indicted Johnson on ten criminal counts. The indictment contained two fourth-degree counts of gross sexual imposition, as well as one count each of fourth-degree theft in office and fifth-degree unauthorised use of computer, cable, or telecommunications property.
The grand jury also returned misdemeanour indictments for voyeurism, interfering with civil rights, stalking, telecommunications harassment, theft, and intimidating an attorney, victim, or witness in a criminal proceeding.
On March 31, he pleaded no contest to five misdemeanours and a felony in connection with the sexual harassment and improper training stipends he received from the city.
Huskey vs. City of Port Clinton, Ohio, et al. is an ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of making sexually charged comments and messages, groping, wrongful invasion of privacy, and destroying evidence and public records between July 2021 and May 2023.
The Blade contacted the visiting county prosecutor on the case, Gwen Howe-Gebers, who declined to comment. The defence attorney, Mark Smith, did not respond to a request for comment.
A shattered dream
Ms. Huskey-Archacki’s firefighting career began when she was 16, but she claims she met Johnson when she was seven years old. She volunteered for Port Clinton’s fire department in 2006, following in the footsteps of her father, Ron Huskey.
“I was raised in the fire department, so I’ve always felt safe. “I felt like I had 30 brothers looking out for me, and they did,” Ms. Huskey-Archacki explained. “It was a family affair, and it was about family. You were led to believe there was a family. However, that has become somewhat jaded.”
Ms. Huskey-Archacki stated that the job “never felt like work” as she responded to 911 calls, assisted patients, and tried to be a “role model” for her children.
Starting a career in firefighting is a daunting prospect for anyone. However, as a woman working in a male-dominated field, Ms. Huskey-Archacki described the environment as intimidating at times.
“I always got criticised in my small yacht club town for being a female firefighter,” she told me.
Battalion Chief Sharyl Close of the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department stated that she aspired to be a police officer or firefighter when she was younger.
When she was hired in 1992, she was one of only two women in her graduating class, and the department had only 19 women overall.
“I felt nervous at first. “I went to a station and expected a tough crowd,” Chief Close said. “There may have been a guy here or guy there that did not want me around, but my dad always told me, ‘You are never going to make everyone happy in any setting.'”
Chief Close stated that her male coworkers took her under their wing and contributed to her positive experiences at the department; she sympathises with Ms. Huskey-Archacki and victims who may be in the same situation as her.
“That irritates me; we should be treated equally; we are there to do the same job,” she said of female firefighters. “We must not be demoralised. We are not there to be treated like a piece of meat.
Ms. Huskey-Archacki stated that she misses her happy memories from the fire department.
“It feels like all of that was for nothing, and my future, what I hoped, what I planned, it is hard to see,” says Ms. Huskey-Archacki. “I missed it. When I reported this, I punched my ticket to never working in a boys club again.”
Taking legal action
The original federal civil rights lawsuit, filed by the Cleveland-based Chandra Law Firm in September 2023, alleged Johnson’s sexual assault and harassment. The lawsuit was amended on September 30th, following an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation into Johnson.
According to the lawsuit, the alleged sexual harassment and assault of Ms. Huskey-Archacki began in July 2021 and continued until May 2023.
The lawsuit also accuses Johnson of transferring Ms. Huskey-Archacki’s role from emergency medical technician to personal secretary against her will, making repeated, unwanted visits to her home while she recovered from an EMT-related back injury, and taking her phone and copying intimate photos for his own use.
Text message screenshots from the lawsuit show conversations between Ms. Huskey-Archacki and Johnson. During a conversation, Mr. Johnson texted Ms. Huskey, “Pictures would sure help…” after she asked if he was feeling better; Johnson was recovering from coronavirus.
Kent Johnson’s son, Trevor Johnson, responded to a subpoena issued by Ms. Huskey-Archacki’s lawyer, Subodh Chandra, in June and July of 2023. They were given to The Blade.
The younger Johnson establishes his background as a fire department lieutenant and emergency medical technician.
Lt. Johnson expressed concern about Ms. Huskey-Archacki’s mental health, claiming she behaved like a “damsel in distress” on duty and was “touchy” with patients and coworkers.
“For years, I have considered the Huskey-Archacki’s close personal friends of the family and all that came from our bond at Port Clinton Fire Department,” according to his reply. “I have never suspected anything she alleges is going on. Not a single member of the Huskey family has spoken to me about the allegations. Speaking with anyone at PCFD, you will discover that nothing was ever seen, heard, witnessed, or reported about Rebekah feeling sexually harassed.
The younger Johnson also questioned why Ms. Huskey-Archacki never called the cops or discussed the assault with others.
“I truly think she is very immature in many ways,” Lt. Johnson responded. “Also, with this comes the fact that she is a hugger and toucher with everybody at PCFD … again we just accepted her for who she was and being that she is pretty strange.”
The Blade contacted Lt. Johnson for comment, but received no response.
Scrutiny in Ottawa County
Ms. Huskey-Archacki was placed on paid administrative leave by the city after filing affidavits of harassment with Chandra Law Firm in June 2023. She returned to work in February 2024, but resigned only two months later due to alleged retaliation from coworkers.
The amended lawsuit describes hostility directed at her by other members of the fire department and city police when she returned to work following Johnson’s formal firing in January 2024. Ms. Huskey-Archacki stated that Port Clinton Fire Department members attended the civil service commission hearings on Johnson’s termination to support him.
“Shaking and crying, I was telling the commissioners about all the terrible incidents that happened to me,” the woman who spoke said. They laughed at me. They looked me in the eyes and shook their heads, disapproving. Even the police chief was there to support my abuser.
Port Clinton Police Chief David Scott stated that he was asked by the city to attend the hearings for safety reasons.
“That was the only reason” for my attendance, Chief Scott told The Blade. “I was not there to support anyone; I was not in favour of either side. I have nothing to say about “the case.”
Over the next few months, Lt. Trevor Johnson and Port Clinton firefighter Keith Conte exchanged text messages. Mr. Chandra provided these conversations.
Mr. Conte texted the lieutenant that firefighters were “cold shouldering” Ms. Huskey-Archacki, and that the situation was like “letting the wolf into the chicken coop.”
The younger Johnson messaged Mr. Conte about Dina Shenker, Port Clinton’s law director, who was at the time asked by Ms. Huskey-Archacki’s lawyer to look into the retaliation claims.
Trevor Johnson texted, “I’ll turn in something, but it will be brief,” to which Mr. Conte responded, “1. I did not witness anything of the sort” and “2. I did not witness anything of the kind.”
Ms. Shenker did not return requests for comment.
Ms. Huskey-Archacki’s lawyer stated that the conversations revealed that some, if not all, of the firefighters refused to work with her and intentionally created a hostile environment.
“The level of nastiness is far beyond what I ever expected. “This is Kent Johnson’s cult,” Mr. Chandra said.
Ms. Huskey-Archacki’s lawyer provided The Blade with an investigative summary report prepared by Clemans Nelson and Associates. The report lists Ms. Huskey’s allegations about a hostile work environment; it was sent to Ms. Shenker in November.
According to the report, on March 24, 2024, Ms. Huskey-Archacki called the fire department three times for backup after receiving a 911 call at 2:09 a.m. Danbury Township EMTs had to cover the call because no Port Clinton firefighters responded while Ms. Huskey was on duty.
“I was trying to get information for my patient, who was unconscious and unable to communicate, and they refused to talk to me,” Ms. Huskey-Archacki said of the police officers who ignored her at the scene. “To act like that and endanger a stranger whom we have sworn to protect and care for — for whom? “For what?”
The Blade’s request to speak with an employee of the Port Clinton Fire Department was denied.
Ms. Huskey-Archacki also reported that members of the community approached her in public.
“Businesses refuse me. People have made comments to me in stores. “I also have very uneasy conversations with strangers,” she explained.
In response to a phone call for comment, Mark Anderson, a Port Clinton police officer, said he could “neither confirm nor deny” whether the community reacted negatively to Johnson and Ms. Huskey-Archacki’s dispute.
“I guarantee no one will want to discuss that case. It had nothing to do with us,” he said about the police department. “I’ve been here for 23 years, and I have worked with Kent Johnson, but I don’t know what happened and I have no comment.”
Looking forward
Ms. Huskey-Archacki and her four-member family face an uncertain future.
“If I were to go to another fire department, they would not hire me,” she informed me. “But not because I’ve been a firefighter for over ten years, not because I’m physically fit, or because I’m knowledgeable about all aspects of the job, but because men fear I’ll call them out for being inappropriate. That’s a shame.”
Ms. Huskey-Archacki’s husband, Matthew Archacki, was hired by Johnson in late 2022 and continues to work for the Port Clinton Fire Department. Mr. Archacki stated that he and his family may relocate following the sentencing.
“I want my family to feel safe at home… so if she wants to move, we will figure it out,” he said about Ms. Huskey-Archacki. “I don’t go to work to please anyone, I do it to provide for my family.”
Ms. Huskey-Archacki expressed gratitude for the support of her parents and siblings.
“I’m moving forward,” she stated. “I am reclaiming my voice and body. I’m trying to get myself back.”
