Posted on 06/22/2010 4:41:12 PM PDT by Colofornian
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.
"I filed ... because I don't have the money to repay him," she said in a phone interview, adding that Garn has not demanded reimbursement. "I'm covering my butt."
Maher said Garn paid her a lump sum of $150,000 in 2002 as well as $3,300 between 1986 and 2008.
"It was hush money, absolutely," she said. "He gave me money to keep me happy."
Maher said Garn initially wanted to give her only $20,000 to keep quiet, but her sister and ex-husband persuaded him to pay more.
When asked Monday by a Standard-Examiner reporter if he would contest Maher's claim that the $153,300 payment is a debt that should be discharged through the bankruptcy, Garn launched into a profanity-laced tirade.
"Who really cares?" he responded, without saying whether he would pursue the claim or let it pass.
Maher said in exchange for money from Garn, she signed a confidentiality agreement in 2002 promising not to talk publicly about the hot-tub incident that occurred when he was 28 and she was 15.
At the time of the incident, Maher was working at Pegasus Records, a company owned by Garn.
Maher said she breached her confidentiality agreement with Garn in March when she contacted several media outlets about the hot-tub incident.
"This isn't about money," she said. "This is about the truth. It's about helping others."
Maher said she currently works as a counselor and helps people struggling with personal problems.
"I counsel people how to stay sober and help them work on their recovery and have a life second to none ... help them get into the right therapy," she said.
According to bankruptcy documents, Maher's income is $1,775 a month while her debts total $310,651. Garn is listed as her largest creditor.
In a rare display, Garn, on the final night of the 2010 legislative session, admitted from the floor of the Utah House of Representatives to paying Maher hush money and then apologized to fellow lawmakers.
"While this payment felt like extortion, I also felt like I should take her word that the money would help her heal. She agreed to keep this 25-year-old incident confidential. Now that this issue is coming up again, it is apparent to me that this payment was also a mistake," Garn told legislators at the time. "I also wish to publicly apologize to this young lady for this incident. And I apologize to you, my colleagues, for any shame this brings to the Utah State Legislature. I have tried my best to serve my constituents in a way that brings honor to them and makes this great state better than the way I found it. I hope to continue to do that."
Garn resigned from the Legislature two days later.
Maher said she's certain Garn is sorry about the hot-tub incident.
"I don't have a doubt in my mind that he is beating himself up because he believes he's bad," Maher said, adding she's writing a book about her experiences with Garn.
So...
...#1 A would-be Utah legislator "uncovers" the butt of a 15 yo in a hot tub...later pays her off to keep it all quiet...And now she says, "I'm covering my butt" via this legal action.
...#2 Given that this Utah legislator paid hush money; was there any retro-active movement in the Utah legislation during 2010 to review any post-facto ethical charges involving Garn? (If not, why not? I mean who's to say he won't be like the other Utah legislator who resigned within weeks of Garn, claim he's "not guilty," and re-seek office again?)
Instead, 'tis only the lingering memory of Garn announcing his resignation for being in a hot tub naked with a 15 yo years before -- and then the Utah delegation giving Garn a standing ovation? (See: Standing ovation was ghastly )
Or just put in "Garn" as keyword for FR search to pull up a dozen articles on this scandal.
Perhaps Mr. Garn's recovery will be aided when the state charges Maher and accomplices with theft by extortion 76-6-406 Utah code . The truth is a great healer and everyone will feel much better about themselves after they do their time . Let the healing , recovery , and restitution begin .
#1...Garn did say that Maher is the one who initiated the $ request...but then, again, Maher also called Garn a liar Re: Garn's other claim that there wasn't any physical contact in that hot tub. Cheryl Maher says Kevin Garn lied about hot tub contact
Tell us, Kbenn...who do you believe on the "contact" question as we establish credibility here?
Vote A: The lds bishop-turned-legislator who according to a March 23, 2010 AP article Court records show Garn was arrested for DUI in 2006, was arrested in 2006 for a DUI and who previously talked this 15 yo into a hot tub on a few occasions?
Or, Vote B, the victim?
Now, what I really find interesting, if Garn is correct -- that Maher initiated the $ request [remember, hush $ is a two-way initiation street; and Maher's not an extortionist if Garn initiated the transaction]
-- is this part of this March 13, 2010 article excerpt from the Salt Lake Tribune:
After an initial meeting with Garn and his wife in Maher's LDS bishop's office, Garn sent her a check from his personal account for $20,000, which she rejected. Maher said her husband at the time wanted more. "I will be happy to pay $150,000 to Cheryl and hope that will bring some degree of peace in her life," Garn wrote in a Jan. 21, 2003, e-mail --- months after the wealthy business owner, who has interests in everything from banks to hotels, had lost the congressional primary. Garn's bombshell blows away lawmakers
So, KBenn, besides Garn apparently not "frowning" about paying Maher this "peace" money, don't you find it rather "interesting" and rather "odd" that Maher would come to Garn, meet with Garn, his wife, and an Lds bishop in the bishop's office, and then supposedly, as both you and Garn claim, make an extortion demand in the presence of all of these witnesses -- and in front of an Lds bishop in his office of all places???
Something seems a bit off-kilter of these claims. Or, are you now telling us that an Lds bishop covered up a crime that occurred in his office -- and didn't report it to the authorities?
Well, potentially it does -- at least as how far we in the public "try" these things. And why is that? Because if Garn is a public liar on one element of his past "relationship" with this woman, then that opens the character credibility floodgate where he claimed she "demanded" the $. (Or, it's possible that indeed she demanded $150,000 -- but that he initiated the idea for a cash settlement...so if he initiated the whole idea of a cash settlement, what then?)
None of that changes the elements of the crime of extortion .
Except that given all the circumstances...like the fact of where they met immediately before Garn extended a check of $20,000 to her...somehow, I just don't think this will ever get anywhere near prosecution status.
As far as covering up a crime , likely some form of rape , that looks like anther good guess . Still extortion . He wouldn't have paid if he didn't have something to hide would he ? A religious hypocrite wanting to hide sex with a minor is the kind of thing is what criminal extortionists would call a pat hand . I am sure he will have your prayers . He needs them .
And she -- Garn's 15 yo victim who carried all that into adulthood -- she doesn't need prayers???...(Just the male perpetrators make your intercessory prayer list?)
And you didn't answer the Q: If Maher extorted Garn in front of his wife and Lds bishop in the Lds bishop's office, doesn't that mean that the Lds bishop has covered up a crime that took place in a Mormon facility by not reporting it to the authorities?
Twenty years late...
(Well, whatever the “reality” — what’s a 28 yo religious fella exploiting a 15 yo employee doing???...and if there wasn’t statutory rape...there was statutory somethin’ goin’ on...and she’s says it happened twice...criminal activity is criminal activity...and we better not start blaming the victims involved)
I have not researched if the bishop has a legal duty to report about the child rape , or a clergy exemption , but he sure had a decency duty to not allow a child rapist to go unreported IMHO . As to the extortion in his office , I doubt he had a legal duty to report , cover up? Sounds like it .
Aw, I was hoping this was about Bill Maher. :-(
There is no clergy exception. The offer was made in front of the clergy and he has more than a few questions coming as well, no matter who was offering.
We all KNOW that he’S BANKRUPT!
The girl got $150,000 from him in 2002. Supposedly she also has had a job.
And now, having apparently squandered the entire $150,000, plus over spent her earnings by another whopping $165,000 (thus leaving her in debt to the tune of 350,000), we are supposed to sympathise with her?
This revelation makes it more likely that, being in debt up to her eyeballs, she went back to Garn to try to extort more money, and when he refused, she broke her agreement and revealed the incident.
How does a person who obviously doesn’t hardly make any money get people to loan her over $160,000 dollars?
I don’t see why anybody would have any sympathy for Garn, and I doubt anybody would support trying to prosecute the girl.
On the other hand, I think sympathy for the girl is satisfied when she decided that $150,000 was a good price for whatever she did in the hot tub (and given that she did not suggest there was a sex act, I think those trying to defend her who claim she allowed him to actually have sex with her do her a disservice. If she SAID she was raped, that would be a different matter. But she says only that there was “contact”, which could mean he groped her and she told him to stop, which sounds much better for her than her supporters suggesting she let him have sex with her).
And if you are saying that she was actually forcibly raped in the hot tub, that raises a whole bunch of other questions as to what all those people in her office were thinking — what sister tells her forcibly raped sibling to take money instead of getting the bastard thrown in jail?
For this reason, and because the girl never said there was sex involved, I don’t believe there was sex involved. To say there was sex is to suggest that the girl has lied by ommission.
You and me both! :)
I'm more inclined to sympathize with a young woman who can't control her spending habits than I am a powerful sleazebag who convinces a young girl to disrobe for him and then pays hush money. I don't think that either are very sympathetic individuals but she more than he.
How does a person who obviously doesn’t hardly make any money get people to loan her over $160,000 dollars?
I don't know what is listed on the bankruptcy filing but $160K in loans isn't that remarkable. A house mortgage, a couple of automobile loans, a couple of uninsured medical procedures with hospital stays, a handful of credit cards, and a debtor can get to $160,000 in no time.
Your defense of Garn comes very close to blaming the victim for the situation.
I have no sympathy for Garn. I just don’t think we have to pick one of them to have sympathy for.
ANd I guess my aversion to the thought of borrowing $160,000 that isn’t very secured credit is why I’ll never have to worry about being bankrupt, and why I’ll never really understand how some people get in so much financial trouble.
My house lost over half it’s appraised value in the past two years. But I’m still carrying more than half of the value as capital. Because I would never have thought it a good idea to borrow against the increased value and spend that money frivolously.
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