New Hampshire’s top military officer defended the National Guard’s response to sexual harassment complaints within its ranks, following a CNN investigation published earlier this month that said the agency failed to protect female soldiers.

Maj. Gen. David Mikolaities said a state assistance audit found the National Guard in compliance with the law. He also worked with an external organization, the New Hampshire Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, and partnered with nonprofits to “make sure we’re outside of our silo,” Mikolaities said at an Executive Council meeting Wednesday.

He stressed that Lt. Col. Mark Patterson’s misconduct was an isolated incident.

“That one inappropriate behavior occurred almost two years ago,” Mikolaities said. “We have redone how we select our mid-level officers.”

The CNN investigation describes Patterson as sexually harassing multiple women in his unit for several months, which he was convicted of in a court-martial. A 50-page Army report obtained by CNN details inappropriate text messages, conversations and other misconduct that female soldiers said made them feel uncomfortable.

Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington asked Mikolaities to clarify.

“The articles that we are seeing in the paper really reflect conduct from times past, not current conduct,” she asked.

“Correct,” Mikolaities said.

Patterson’s rank was reduced and he’s no longer in the military, but it’s a symptom of a years-long problem, in which women described their experience in the National Guard as toxic and sexist, according to the CNN investigation.

Warmington said she’s receiving emails from current and former soldiers who also refer to a toxic culture there. Mikolaities said due to privacy restrictions, the National Guard is unable to defend itself publicly from those claims.

“Select people who continue to pass a negative narrative on us is completely unfounded, and unless they want to sign a privacy release statement, we’re prohibited from telling our side of the story,” Mikolaities said.

Gov. Chris Sununu said he didn’t consider asking for Mikolaities’ resignation because the allegations were toward Patterson alone and referred to the state’s internal and external reviews of the case.

“They took appropriate action on that individual,” Sununu said.

Charlotte Matherly is the State House reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, or send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com