A grand jury in Dauphin County that investigated allegations of sexual assault involving a former Butler County representative made 10 suggestions to the state legislature.

A grand jury in Dauphin County that investigated allegations of sexual assault involving a former Butler County representative made 10 suggestions to the state legislature. The jury's report was released Monday morning.

The jury did not recommend criminal charges be filed against former state Rep. Brian Ellis, but the report suggests that the team longed for more oversight and investigatory ability when it comes to potential misconduct by members of the state's government.

“The basis for the present recommendation involves accusations of sexual assault that were not brought in a timely manner for fear that they would not be pursued vigorously,” the report states.

The 10 recommendations are as follows:

• Establish an Office of Legislative Responsibility to investigate claims of misconduct by elected officials or their staff members.

• Eliminate time limits on sanctions against elected officials or staff members.

• Empower the new office to confidentially investigate members without legislative interference, detaching such inquiries from politics.

• Give the office the power of subpoena for its investigations.

• Make interfering with the office's investigations a criminal offense.

• Make elected officials and staff members mandated reporters of sexual assault, harassment or misconduct.

• Establish a means to screen referrals to the new office for any criminal liabilities. If there are any, they would be immediately referred to law enforcement without notifying politicians.

•Victims of sexual assault or harassment should not be required to come forward, although they are free to do so.

• If the office sees a need for an investigation, but not a criminal one, it's able to do so itself.

• The final recommendation opens up the office's oversight to a broad reach, including financial crimes or improper acts on the basis of characteristics such as race, gender or sexual orientation.

Subscribe online or in print to read a full article about the grand jury's recommendations in Tuesday's Butler Eagle.