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City investigation admonishes Rachel Dolezal misconduct

SPOKANE, Wash. — An independent investigation by the city of Spokane has found that Rachel Dolezal, who resigned as president of the Spokane NAACP over a flap about her racial identity, acted improperly and violated government rules while head of the city's volunteer police ombudsman commission.

The report released by the city Wednesday admonishes the conduct of Dolezal, the chairwoman, and commissioners Kevin Berkompas and Adrian Dominguez.

The investigation looked into complaints of workplace harassment that a city employee who staffed the commission filed against the commissioners in April.

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The report says the evidence and interviews confirm workplace harassment allegations and "a pattern of misconduct."

Spokane Mayor David Condon and Council President Ben Stuckart said in a joint statement that they're "deeply disturbed by the facts contained in the report of findings from the independent investigator."

In an interview with NBC News on Tuesday night, Rachel Dolezal said she hasn't had a DNA test and there's no "biological proof" that Larry and Ruthanne Dolezal are her parents.

NBC's Savannah Guthrie pointed out there's a birth certificate that lists the Dolezals as her parents.

Rachel Dolezal responded that she can't prove her parentage one way or another.

The uproar over her racial identity began last week after her parents said their daughter was white. For years, she publicly described herself as black or partly black and said on NBC's "Today" show that she identifies as black.

More than a decade ago, Howard University's lawyers questioned whether she had tried to pose as African-American when she applied for admission to the historically black college in the nation's capital.

Dolezal had sued the university, claiming among other things that she had been denied a teaching position because she was white. During a deposition, Howard's lawyers pressed her to explain whether she had tried to mislead the admissions office with an essay on her study of black history, according to court documents reviewed by The Assoicated Press.

"I plunged into black history and novels, feeling the relieving release of understanding and common ground," she wrote in the essay. "My struggles paled as I read of the atrocities so many ancestors faced in America."

Dolezal's lawsuit against Howard was dismissed before reaching trial when a court said she failed to prove her claims and ordered her to pay the university's legal costs.

In her admissions essay, she described her family as "transracial," writing that "at the early age of three I showed an awareness of the richness and beauty of dark skin when I said, 'Mama, all people are beautiful but black people are so beautiful.'"

During the deposition, Dolezal said she was "talking about black history in novels."

Lawyers pressed her to say if she had ever misled anyone into thinking she was black.

"I don't know that I could lead anyone to believe that I'm African-American. I believe that, you know, in certain context, maybe someone would assume that, but I don't know that I could convince someone that I'm a hundred percent African-American," she responded.

Civil rights leaders in Spokane are openly worrying about the damage all this has done to their efforts to move the region beyond a troubled racial past.

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Copyright The Associated Press