TOLEDO, Ohio — The three women who accused former CEO of 1Matters and Veterans Matter Ken Leslie of sexual harassment are sharing their stories.
According to documents from the women, the earliest incident dates back to 2012 and the most recent in 2019.
But these women have received reports from other women and believe that it has been going on for longer.
In 2012, Rachel Richardson interviewed for a position at 1Matters Organization.
Richardson said she was close to being homeless and needed the job to help with finances, but didn't end up getting it.
"He was walking behind me and he pretended to zip up his pants and he made groaning and grunting noises as if I had just performed oral sex on him. So that was totally humiliating," accuser Rachel Richardson said.
That interaction was the first of numerous unwanted sexual advances from Ken Leslie, according to Richardson.
At the time, Leslie was the CEO of Veterans Matter and 1Matters in Toledo and later served as a board member of the Toledo Streets Newspaper.
Richardson is one of three women who publicly came forward accusing Leslie of sexual harassment with notarized affidavits in mid-August.
"I tried to get us back to the conversation, which was what our sub-committee was going to do, and he just randomly blurts out, 'you're hot, you know,'" Cami Roth Szirotnyak said.
Earlier this year, the three women found each other after Richardson made a post on social media about Leslie.
They realized they were not alone in what happened to them and say they knew others were victims as well.
"I'm angry because here it is, six years later after it happened to me. It's continuing to happen and they're allowing it. The people he works with, the people around him, they know it and they keep allowing this to happen and it has to stop," accuser Heidi Buck said
Buck, Richardson, and Szirotnyak all say they sent various messages to board members at Veterans Matter, 1Matters and the Toledo Streets Newspaper about Leslie's behavior.
Each time they said the real issue was swept under the rug.
"He continued to sexually harass me several times. I told him no every single time," Szirotnyak said.
Szirotnyak is the most recent of the women in the affidavits who say Leslie sexually harassed her.
After realizing the pattern, the women came forward. Privately first, with emails to board members.
"We said, 'we want him removed and we want you to make a public statement. This is your opportunity to show your leadership and not allow this behavior to continue,'" Szirotnyak explained.
At the beginning of October, Leslie made a post on his social media page announcing his resignation from the boards of 1Matters and Veterans Matter.
WTOL 11 reached out to Leslie multiple times.
He declined an on-camera interview but sent us a statement addressing one of the allegations and apologizing for what he claims was "unacceptable behavior."
It reads, in part: "Bottom line, my language was unacceptable, certainly not the conduct of the human and leader I want to be. [...] I want to help heal. That has always been, and always will be, my mission."
The women say they're glad Leslie is not in a position of power anymore and since coming forward more women have reached out to them with similar stories.
"The stories keep coming in... the reports keep coming in," Szirotnyak said. "There are more women who have very troubling stories about what Leslie has done to them."
"We need to collectively stand together and say this is enough. We have to stand together and say no more," Buck said.
Leslie says he started therapy last year so that he doesn't engage in this kind of behavior.
All of the women say they're not done. They will continue taking stories from women and want to know why board members let this go on for so long.