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OGDEN -- Former Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn is listed as a creditor in the bankruptcy filing last week of a woman he paid to keep silent about a nude hot-tubbing incident more than two decades ago, when she was 15. Court documents filed Friday indicate Cheryl Ann Maher, of Derry, N.H., owes Garn, who lives in Layton, $153,300 because she defaulted on a 2002 contract. Maher said Monday she listed Garn as a creditor in her Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition as a precaution to prevent him from demanding repayment of hush money in the 1985 hot tub incident....

<p>SALT LAKE CITY -- The former Utah House majority leader who resigned after acknowledging he went hot-tubbing in the nude with a minor was arrested for driving under the influence a week before winning the Republican nomination in 2006, according to court records.</p>

In the wake of former Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn's confession about his "mistake" about getting into a hot tub naked with a 15-year-old girl 25 years ago, the public has also learned about another questionable decision, this one at the Deseret News eight years ago. In 2002, Cheryl Maher came forward to a Deseret News reporter to tell him a profile like this one of then-Congressional candidate Garn didn't provide the whole story. She had been the focus of Garn's attention, advances, and eventually the hot-tub incident. Garn had been Maher's Sunday School teacher and boss. Although Deseret...

Kevin Garn is gone from Utah politics after a sordid 25-year secret was finally laid bare in a bizarre end-of-session legislative speech last week. Garn, 55, admitted to sharing a hot tub with a 15-year-old girl 25 years ago. Both were nude. Also, Garn admitted that he paid $150,000 in 2002 to the woman, Cheryl Maher, for her to keep quiet about the incident. Garn's resignation reminds us that in politics, most secrets eventually are revealed. There may be more to the story. We promise to keep our readers informed. There is one ghastly sidelight to all this that merits...

The Deseret News has a fascinating story about how in 2002 it received word and verified that former Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn’s once hot-tubbed in the nude with a 15-year-old girl, Cheryl Maher, when the politician was about twice her age. Yet, even though Garn was a candidate for U.S. Congress at the time, the Des News decided it wasn’t a story worth reporting. ReadLet’s see, Garn was a candidate for high federal office, thousands of voters were about to make up their minds on whether he should represent them in Congress. The candidate had deliberately thrust himself...

For Kevin Garn, it's been 25 years of hiding, of paying big money for "secrecy," of presenting himself as a devoted public servant, twice rising to the status of House Majority Leader in the Utah Legislature. In the same 25 years, Cheryl Maher has been plagued by substance abuse and mental illness, even as she served in leadership roles in the LDS Church -- as did Garn, a former bishop. This week, it all came out: In 1985, Garn, then 30 and married, and Maher, a 15-year-old who worked for him, took off their clothes and climbed into a hot...

Allegations made by Cheryl Maher that she had hot-tubbed nude with Kevin Garn when she was 15 were taken seriously by the LDS Church, and were referred to Garn's local ecclesiastical leaders to be dealt with, a church spokesman said. In August 2008, Maher wrote a seven-page letter to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Thomas Monson describing the hot tub incident, its impact on her life and making other allegations against Garn. Five days later, she received a letter from Brook Hales, secretary to the First Presidency, that said, "Please be assured this matter will be...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's House majority leader resigned from the Legislature Saturday, two days after acknowledging he paid a woman $150,000 to keep quiet about a nude hot-tubbing incident that took place a quarter century ago when she was a teenager. Republican Rep. Kevin Garn's Thursday night confession came in a speech before House colleagues and stunned this conservative state. On Saturday, he apologized in an e-mail to House Speaker David Clark 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...

It was June of 2002, just five days before the Republican primary for Utah's 1st Congressional District, and Kevin and Tanya Garn were frantically trying to reach Cheryl Maher. "Please, please call me," read an e-mail from Tanya Garn's "supermommie" account. "I know the most healing thing you can do is talk to me." Maher had been talking to reporters, alleging a 1985 encounter with Garn, her boss at the time, when she was 15 and he was 30 and married. Garn had resigned as Utah House majority leader a day before the flurry of e-mails began. On Thursday, a...

SALT LAKE CITY — Cheryl Maher said Friday that Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn is lying about having no physical contact with her when they went hot-tubbing in the nude when she was 15 years old. She also says they had a long-term relationship at that time and contends that he had affairs with others. Also, Garn may have violated election laws by not disclosing on federal forms that he paid Maher $150,000 in 2002 — the year he ran for Congress — to keep quiet. "He is not being completely honest," Maher told the Deseret News by telephone...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A late-night confession by Utah's House majority leader about sitting nude in a hot tub with a minor 25 years ago has shocked this conservative state's political establishment but has not prompted calls from party leaders for him to resign. Rep. Kevin Garn, 55, acknowledged the indiscretion late Thursday immediately after the Legislature adjourned for the session. He said he paid the woman, Cheryl Maher, now 40, $150,000 to keep quiet about the episode when he unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2002.

SALT LAKE CITY — House Majority Leader Kevin Garn admitted as the Legislature adjourned Thursday night to a nude hot tubbing incident with a teenage girl 25 years ago. In a tearful statement in a packed House chambers, Garn said the mistake has "now come back to haunt me" as the woman has gone public with the story. The Layton Republican said he entered into a confidentiality agreement with the woman in 2002 and paid her $150,000. "I was 28 years old and I foolishly went hot-tubbing with a young woman nearly half my age. Although we did not have...

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...