I don't think I'd sit in a Baskin Robbins with this putz.
Posted on 03/12/2010 7:54:31 AM PST by Colofornian
Just moments after the close of the 2010 legislative session, House majority leader Kevin Garn dropped a bombshell in front of all his colleagues that eight years ago he paid a woman $150,000 to keep a hot tub incident quiet.
That incident happened 25 years ago, he said.
“Twenty-five years ago I made a mistake that has come back to haunt me,” said Garn as his wife sat quietly next to him. “I expect to suffer public humiliation and embarrassment.”
Garn said there was no sexual contact with the girl who was “half his age” and that he has told his wife and children of the incident, which happened when he was 28 and married. He did not say whether he would leave his seat or step down from his leadership position.
Garn, 55, a prominent Layton businessman, said that he paid the former Cedar City woman $150,000 eight years ago not to say anything about the incident involving nudity and a hot tub, and that the deal included a confidentiality agreement.
“This came up eight years ago when I ran for Congress,” he said.
The woman told The Salt Lake Tribune that she has struggled with pills, alcohol and mental illness in the years since the incident. She told the newspaper she contacted reporters when Garn was running for Congress in 2002, and he offered her $20,000. She said her husband didn’t think that was enough, and told her to demand $150,000, the Tribune reported.
Garn said in an e-mailed statement that in 2002, he and his wife met with the woman and, “at her demand” they paid her $150,000. He said the woman claimed the money would “help her heal,” and now he says it’s clear to him that the payment was a mistake.
He says he told his wife and children about the incident years ago, and that it did not result in any criminal charges.
“I sat in a hot tub naked with her. Nothing happened,” Garn said.
The woman, who has identified herself as Sheryl Maher, says the situation involved more than sitting in a hot tub, and that she was 15 years old at the time.
Maher, now living in New Hampshire, said the incident has haunted her.
“I never wanted to do this,” said Maher, explaining that she has resisted going public with the incident.
Garn was in the state House of Representatives from 1991-2002 where he served as assistant majority whip. He left in 2002 in an unsuccessful bid for the Republic nomination for the U.S. House 1st District seat that was eventually won by Rob Bishop. He has been a key player in the House in helping to write ethics bills, alongside former state senator Sheldon Killpack, who resigned after being arrested on a DUI.
Garn said he had sat down with Maher and her LDS bishop to try and resolve the matter.
“We know a man of integrity of leadership who’s willing to lend a helping hand to any in this body,” said Speaker of the House David Clark, after Garn spoke to the body. He asked House members to keep their hearts open and honor Garn for serving capably.
The House then gave Garn a standing ovation.
So she was 15? He was 30? (Yup; other articles confirm that)
From the article: Garn said he had sat down with Maher and her LDS bishop to try and resolve the matter.
Does anyone actually buy that he sat in a hot tub with a naked teenager and nothing happened? If nothing happened ... why get her naked?
SnakeDoc
I’m in S. Utah.
I’ll make a deal with all of them: If I’m not forced to see pictures of what the whole bunch looks like NOW, I’m willing to pretend I never heard this tale.
:)
$150K buys “nothing” nowadays. ;)
Sheesh. Talk about OXYMORONS!
"The truth will set you free." Now, Emanual has nothing. This guy can vote any way he wants. He's finally free.
On the upside — he’s still a degenerate and a criminal ... but at least it was a girl.
SnakeDoc
Well, hot tubs are hot, and usually have lots of chlorine stuff in them. It wrecks the Lycra in bathing suits, so if you don’t want to ruin your expensive suit, you take it off.
At least those are the rules in my hot tub.
As for paying off a woman when “nothing happened”, part of “ethics” is avoiding situations that could be construed to be unethical.
ok. this guy is on the house ethics committee as well as the joint appropriations subcommittee on public education. he belongs to the party that never ceases to trumpet its devotion to "family values."
15 should get you 20.
Perhaps the Prophet, Warren Jeffs, can offer some advice on proper conduct with minors. It will be also be fun to watch his political and religious peers drop him like a hot potato when the former "president of the LDS young woman's group" gives her side of the story. No wonder Utah is the laughing stock of this country! Hypocrisy is alive and well, while Life remains Elevated (along with other unmentionables) in this purdy great theocracy.
For these & other comments, see: TribTowns
>> Well, hot tubs are hot, and usually have lots of chlorine stuff in them. It wrecks the Lycra in bathing suits, so if you don’t want to ruin your expensive suit, you take it off. At least those are the rules in my hot tub.
I will admit to not knowing much about hot tubs (I don’t own one), but one would think he would be more worried about his integrity than that of his swimsuit (who buys expensive bathing suits, anyway?). Then again, maybe I haven’t thought this through ... if I had a hot tub, I’d buy the wife an expensive bathing suit and institute the lycra-based hot-tub nudity rule. Its a plan.
As for the esteemed perverted Congressman ... being caught in a hot tub with a naked minor can land you in jail, but being caught in a hot tub with a clothed minor is far less problematic. Buy a cheap bathing suit and/or waive the nudity rule for jailbait.
SnakeDoc
I don't think I'd sit in a Baskin Robbins with this putz.
I'm sure they were just as hard on Charlie Rangle, who's in charge of the ways and means committee, when he avoided paying taxes and claiming income. We all know the democrats believe in sharing the money of the wealthy.(/S)
Unless the woman is traumatized and under psych care and if he didn’t assault her, I really don’t give a flying f-— what happened 25 years ago. Where will this BS stop? There has to be some line.
She took his blood money. Move on.
I do if it directly affects us now. This doesn't. It has nothing to do with us.
On the other hand, Obomas history 25 years ago is important, because it's the same today as it was back then, and it DOES affect us.
I agree that we were entitled to know about Obama. I am an advocate of his files being opened because it is related to his qualifications for the job. I am also tired of all of the stories which surface, especially when the guy tried to make (or buy) amends. It’s just not important. My read is the couple intends to keep blackmailing the guy. I wouldn’t last one day as a politician. I would tell her to get over it, take the go away money, and leave me alone.
Isn't a key part of this story that he paid $150,000 hush $ -- and that he's been heading up a legislative ethics committee. How do you reconcile that? (The hush $ was paid 8 yrs ago -- a lot more recent than 25 years ago!)
AAAAAAAAAAY! Too hot in the hot tub!
Burn myself! Make it cooler! Good God!
“he said her husband didn’t think that was enough, and told her to demand $150,000, the Tribune reported.”
Had he handled it like Letterman, the husband would be going to jail and he would have been the victim.
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