Bill on Rules for Sex Harassment Suits Advances : Legislation: Assembly approves guidelines 56 to 14. Vote comes as details emerge in cases involving two lawmakers and their aides.

The state Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill hailed by backers as an important step in broadening the ground rules for sexual harassment lawsuits, even as new details emerged in the sexual harassment investigations of two lawmakers and their top aides.

The bill, SB 612, would set up guidelines for sexual harassment lawsuits to be filed against doctors, lawyers and other professionals who provide services to clients. The measure by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) was approved by a 56-14 margin and will be sent to the Senate for concurrence in amendments.

Hayden said the bill “represents a victory for thousands of women who are harassed every day during the course of their everyday lives.”

According to a report released Thursday, an Assembly investigation corroborated most of the harassment allegations leveled against Orange County Assemblyman Mickey Conroy and his chief of staff by a former legislative aide who is suing the pair.

But the inquiry, completed earlier this year under the auspices of the legislative counsel, did not conclusively find that Robyn Boyd was fired in a retaliatory move for complaining about the harassment. The 15-page report, released by Boyd’s Sacramento lawyer, was completed March 1 but had been kept under wraps by Assembly officials.

After conducting extensive interviews, two investigators determined that Republican Conroy and his chief of staff, Pete Conaty, had violated the Assembly’s sexual harassment policy.

The report verified that Conroy on several occasions inappropriately kissed or put his arm around Boyd, 35. It also confirmed that Conaty on one occasion showed Boyd an X-rated newspaper that had been distributed on the Assembly floor by a lawmaker pushing an anti-pornography bill.

The report also noted that Conroy and Conaty said they had no knowledge Boyd was uncomfortable with their conduct. And the investigators determined that Conroy and Conaty “made a concerted effort to change their behavior” once Boyd complained. Their conduct, the report concluded, was the product “not of malice, but of ignorance and/or poor judgment.”

Both have denied the allegations but again declined Thursday to give a full version of their views until the lawsuit is settled.

The second complaint revolves around a sexual harassment lawsuit filed last week in Sacramento by an Assembly employee against Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-San Jose) and his chief of staff, John Barry Wyatt.

The lawsuit by Deborah Simpson, 39, alleges that Wyatt made unwelcome sexual advances, especially one night this year at Simpson’s home, and that Areias ignored her complaints and kept Wyatt on the state payroll.

Wyatt and Areias have said the Assembly Rules Committee determined that the allegations were without merit.

But on Thursday, Simpson’s lawyer, Curtis Leavitt, called the denials “an attempt to whitewash” the complaint. He cited two letters dated June 17 from the Rules Committee’s legal counsel, Nina Ryan, to Simpson and Wyatt.

In one letter, Ryan admonished Wyatt for using “extremely poor judgment” and said he had agreed that his “conduct was inappropriate for an Assembly employee.”

The letter did not spell out the nature of the conduct for which Wyatt was being faulted. Still, Wyatt agreed to counseling and Ryan recommended that he be docked a week’s pay. The committee refused to reveal whether Wyatt’s pay was reduced.

Still, the committee investigation was “unable to find that Mr. Wyatt violated the Assembly’s sexual harassment policy,” Ryan said in her letter to Simpson, who worked for Areias from 1989 until earlier this year. She is now in the Assembly’s secretarial pool.

“The incident you reported did not occur in the workplace,” Ryan’s letter said, but instead happened at Simpson’s house on a Saturday night when neither she nor Wyatt was engaged in their official capacities as state employees.

Wyatt, who has denied the claims in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment. Terry McHale, an Areias aide, said the allegations as they relate to his boss are “absolutely untrue.”

Both Areias and Conroy voted for Hayden’s measure Thursday.

Times staff writer Jerry Gillam contributed to this story.