Posted on 11/02/2011 4:23:38 AM PDT by Cardhu
WASHINGTON — The National Restaurant Association gave $35,000 — a year’s salary — in severance pay to a female staff member in the late 1990s after an encounter with Herman Cain, its chief executive at the time, made her uncomfortable working there, three people with direct knowledge of the payment said on Tuesday.
The woman was one of two whose accusations of sexual harassment by Mr. Cain, now a Republican candidate for president, led to paid severance agreements during his 1996-99 tenure at the association. Disclosure of the scale of the severance further challenged his initial description of the matter as a “witch hunt,” as did new descriptions from the woman’s friends and colleagues of her level of discomfort at work.
Adding to the pressure on Mr. Cain, a lawyer for the second woman called on the restaurant association to release her from a confidentiality agreement signed as part of her settlement, raising the prospect that she could publicly dispute Mr. Cain’s account of what happened. The lawyer said the confidentiality agreement had left her unable to respond to Mr. Cain’s denials of any inappropriate behavior toward the women.
“He’s basically saying: ‘I never harassed anyone. These claims have no merit,’ ” said the lawyer, Joel P. Bennett of Washington, who represented the woman in her initial agreement. “And I’m sure my client would have a comeback to that.”
The precise nature of the encounters between Mr. Cain and the two women remained murky. He has said over the past two days that he joked with one of the women about her height. But he has not addressed what happened with the other woman — the one said to have received the $35,000 payment. Her friends and colleagues said she had told them at the time that she was deeply...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
$35,000 is nothing. Attorneys would have eaten up that much in fees in one month.
“And I’m sure my client would have a comeback to that.”
BS!! These charges were kept mum until it became obvious that Cain is capable of winning the nomination.
Besides, none of this or anything these claimants say matters at this point.
The Liberal smear is by now TOO pervasive and predictable to carry any weight with anyone!!!
Any dead cats turn up on her deck?
Ping.
Glad to see that non-disclosure agreement they signed is working out so well. </sarcasm>
It looks like the old “we know what you are...we’re just trying to figure out the price.”
You aint seen nuttin yet folks—just wait until Barry’s campaign has a nominated target!
She’s probably thinking she’ll get many times over that $35K amount with a single televised interview.
Looks like Jim Rutenberg, Jeff Zeleny and Mike McIntire are all vying for the coveted and esteemed ‘Jonathan Martin Excellence in Journalism’ Award.
Do I realllly need a ‘sarc’ tag for this?
I was referring to the Associations legal bills. The complainer probably ended up with $20-24,000 after legal bills and taxes.
So why did this not come out during his Senate campaign?
Once a shake-down artist, always a shake-down artist..
Sell to the higest bidder and enhance her story.
She won’t be under oath.
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When a female accuses a manager or CEO of sexual harassment it is cheaper to pay the complainer off than to defend the charge in court especially as the definition of harassment is that the complainant decided to feel offended. This sort of condition is why companies, especially small employers are trying to hire fewer females and minorities. Such employees can too often make some quick money by crying sexual harassment or racial bias etc. Black women employees are especially dangerous.
And just how much money was Mary Jo Kopechne’s family paid? Don’t know? Of course, the press wasn’t interested in that.
Looks like from this article the “sexual harrassment” issue was not even the primary reason of this second accusser’s separation from the organization.
I suspect it didn't surface because he was so far behind Johnny Isaksen, there was no "threat" of his winning. This is clear evidence they're taking Cain's candidacy seriously, so it was deemed necessary to clear him off the field. This is the same crap pulled against Jack Ryan in that Senate race vs. Obama in IL back in 2004.
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