A Lee Circuit Court administrator resigned Wednesday after employers concluded he sexually harassed an assistant through emails, inappropriate touches and suggestive comments.

Ken Kellum will continue his work with the court system, however. As part of his resignation, he is to be rehired as a consultant overseeing court facilities.

Employed with the system since 1997, Kellum served as operations director in Lee County, a position that placed him in close contact with judges and their assistants.

His accuser, unnamed in investigation documents, said Kellum’s status left her in fear of speaking out about the harassment.

“I did not enjoy being touched, hugged or massaged,” she wrote in a lengthy statement to human resources. “I was very upset and too afraid to say anything to him.”

In his own statement to human resources, Kellum said he and his employees had a close relationship, and he denied harassing the woman.

Yet 18 months prior to the current complaint, Kellum’s employer issued him an “informal oral warning” after a State Attorney’s Office employee complained her conversations with Kellum made her uncomfortable.

The most recent accuser presented employers with a detailed account of her interactions with Kellum from her hiring in July 2009 to mid-April, when she complained to a judicial assistant. The judicial assistant, in turn, notified a judge, who in turn contacted Circuit Chief Judge Keith Cary and trial court administrator Richard Callanan.

In her written complaint, the accuser described Kellum as a demanding employer whose behavior grew increasingly possessive and suggestive with time.

In emails he gushed over her appearance and called her “baby girl” and “a beautiful white swan.”

“You are very pretty today,” he wrote in one message. “I love you in red.”

He often tried to hug her, she wrote, and he once put his face inches away from hers as if to kiss her.

“He would come behind my desk and pretend to look at something on my computer and put his arms around me,” the accuser wrote. “Sometimes he would massage my neck and I would jump up and pull away from him.”

Kellum acknowledge in one email that his actions could be misinterpreted.

“So there have been time when the look in your face made me want to just take you in my arms and hold you but I don’t want you to think I am harassing you so I don’t do it,” he wrote in a June message.

Two of Kellum’s prior employees and two current employees told human resources that their boss tended to be “touchy/feely.” Two suggested his actions could be seen as objectionable, while one said she only saw good intentions.

After finding for the accuser, the court leaned toward demotion or termination, according to the investigation. Kellum instead resigned on Wednesday, citing health reasons.

His new work, to begin May 12, will be contractual and non-supervisory. He’ll be paid between $22,500 and $45,000 depending on the number of hours he works, according to Chief Deputy Court Administrator Lisa Kiesel.

Kellum will also have to re-attend sexual harassment training. If any more complaints are received, he’ll face immediate termination.

In a written response to inquiries from the News-Press (Fort Myers), Callanan, the trial court administrator, wrote that the court considered factors such as Kellum’s length of employment and absence of prior discipline.