| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Utah GOP leader resigns after hot tub confession |
| 2010-03-14 |
| Utah's House majority leader resigned from the Legislature Saturday, two days after his confession about sitting nude in a hot tub with a teenage girl 25 years ago stunned this conservative state. Republican Rep. Kevin Garn, in an e-mail message to House Speaker David Clark, apologized for becoming a distraction. "After discussing this matter with my family, I have decided that it is in the best interests of them, my colleagues and the people of Utah," he wrote. Garn, 55, acknowledged the indiscretion with the legal minor late Thursday immediately after the Legislature adjourned for the session. "Although we did not have any sexual contact, it was still clearly inappropriate -- and it was my fault," he told colleagues from the House floor Thursday night. House members responded with thunderous applause for his honesty and embraced him. Garn said he paid the woman, Cheryl Maher, $150,000 to keep quiet about the episode when he unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2002. But the now 40-year-old Maher began calling local news media last week to tell them about being naked with Garn when she was 15. It's unclear whether Garn was 29 or 30 at the time of the incident. He's more than 14 years older than Maher, who now lives in Derry, N.H. "I'm sure the resignation was really difficult for him, but it needed to happen," Maher said Saturday. "This is a secret that devastated my life and my family's life." Maher declined to comment on specifics of the hot-tubbing episode. She said she thinks Garn still has a bright future out of politics. "My intention was not to harm or hurt anyone, it's just to speak the truth," she said. "It's freedom for me to get it out in the open and I think somewhere down the line he will think it's freedom for him, too."Ã¥ |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Somehow I don't think that "you and your familys lives" get devastated unless he's rich. |
| Posted by: notascrename 2010-03-14 22:00 |
| #7 --anybody remember back in 2000(?), GB Packer tight end Mark Chmura was in a hot tub with some underage girls? He was acquitted of sexually assaulting a former baby-sitter at a drunken party.. |
| Posted by: Tom--Pa 2010-03-14 21:41 |
| #6 I'd say being nekkid in a hot tub with a 15 year-old girls might get you a prison stretch today and listed as a sexual offender after you got out. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-03-14 19:30 |
| #5 "what do you do after you've ruined your life? where do you go? who do you know that will give you anything to go with good advice? do you tell your friends? can you face your wife? what do you do after youve ruined your life?" Mose Alison - what do you do after you've ruined your life? |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-03-14 19:09 |
| #4 C'mon, I know you're wondering... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-03-14 18:24 |
| #3 Looks like $150,000 down the drain. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-03-14 17:06 |
| #2 Probably just trying to duplicate this. The timing is right... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-03-14 13:10 |
| #1 I'll Take That As A Yes (The Hot Tub Song) by Phil Vassar Kevin Garn was playing this song in the background, when he paid Cheryl Maher the hush money. Says it all..... play it. |
| Posted by: Cheater Ghibelline3278 2010-03-14 11:38 |
