Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Utah House Majority Leader Resigns

Utah: House Majority Leader, and Mormon, Kevin Garn announced Saturday he was resigning from the Utah Legislature, two days after revelations of a nude hot-tubbing incident with a minor 25 years ago and a payment to keep it quiet.

The incident came to light in the last days of the 2010 legislative session in which he acknowledged inappropriate behavior with Maher, who was 15 at the time and worked for Garn, who was 30. Garn arranged to pay her $150,000, provided she sign an agreement not to go public with the incident. She signed a nondisclosure agreement and Garn paid her the money in 2003.  Read More: Kevin Garn

Garn admitted the two had sat nude in a Salt Lake City hot tub. He insisted there was no sexual contact, but admitted that it was wrong. Maher insists there was touching and physical contact and also says they had a long-term relationship at that time and contends that he had affairs with others.  Read More: Cheryl Maher

The Mormon owned newspaper, The Deseret News, learned of the allegations against Garn just before the election in 2002 but decided not to run a story about the indiscretion at that time, since "the GOP primary was only weeks away".  Read More: Deseret News

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