Free Republic

WEARE, New Hampshire (ABC 4 News) - In a bizarre and tragic twist, the woman who led to the political downfall last year of one of the most powerful men in Utah state government, is now dead. Cheryl Mader was murdered in a small New Hampshire town about 30 miles northwest of Manchester. The man broke into Cheryl Maher's home in Weare, New Hampshire early Sunday morning. He shot and killed her before turned the gun on himself and committing suicide. Maher was not the killer's only target. Earlier that same morning, the same man broke into another home about...

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...

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.

Hush money plagues Garn / Representative says he gave woman $150,000 after 1985 nude incident in hot tub Statement from Representative Kevin Garn - Delivered from the floor of the House on March 11, 2010 SALT LAKE CITY -- A top leader in the Utah House of Representatives, Rep. Kevin Garn, 55, admits he paid a woman to keep quiet about an incident in a hot tub 25 years ago. Garn, a prominent Layton businessman, said Thursday he paid a former Cedar City woman $150,000 eight years ago and that the deal included a confidentiality agreement. "This came up eight...