Did gold digger kill her elderly boyfriend?
Kevin Garn, Utah House Majority Leader, Paid Woman $150,000 to Keep Naked Hot Tub Secret
Friday, Mar. 12 2010 @ 1:49PM
Though no one can beat Florida's sheer volume of depravity, tiny Utah, with its repressed religious culture, has gotta be America's weirdest state per capita. Meet Kevin Garn, the 55-year-old majority leader of the Utah House...
25 years ago, the then 28-year-old Republican decided to do a some naked hot-tubbing. That wouldn't be a crime -- if he hadn't done it with a 15-year-old girl. He says there was no sex. But getting naked with a school girl is just a little creepy. In 2007 Maher, who now lives in New Hampshire, asked Garn to pay her way back to her high school reunion in Utah. They met while she was visiting. A year later, she emailed Garn's oldest son to say that "nothing will stop me from getting exactly what this matter needs, and that is justice and compensation." At the time, she was going through a divorce with a custody battle, and clearly needed money. In recent weeks, she'd been contacting newspapers to get her story out. Garn tried to call her, but she hung up. Maher believes he has a history of going perv on young women -- a claim he denies -- and wants the good people of Utah to know.
The matter seemed to have been left in the past until 2002. But that's when Garn (pictured above) decided to run for Congress. In Utah, you can't be a good family-values conservative when you get naked with other family's daughters.
So Garn decided to make sure no one knew about it. He paid Cheryl Maher, the girl in question, $150,000 to keep her mouth shut.
Garn lost the election, but that didn't put an end to his little bribery scheme. Either Maher is a gold digger, or she's merely suffering pangs of conscience -- we'll let you decide.
So let's recap, shall we? The guy is a pedophile. He pays someone off to keep that secret. Then when he's about to get caught, he beats his victim to the airwaves with a spinned confession. Is this what passes for political courage?
Republicans say they won't ask Garn to resign. After all, he's the Utah GOP's point man on new ethics legislation that comes in response to -- you guessed it -- a bribery scandal.
Read other strange adventures from the Mormon state in our Utah Archives.
In Utah, you can't be a good family-values conservative when you get naked with other family's daughters.
Hmmm.. I thought that was what Utah was all about?
Posted 03/12/2010 at 01:57:20 PMwhat a creepy bastard-and he has so many fans? I don't get it...
Posted 03/12/2010 at 02:08:04 PMHe is a creep. With adults like him around she did not grow up good. She's blackmailing. That is a crime too. I*s it karma, yup. Maybe she should have a record too. It might help her.
Pete:
Lets' see a piece on Rep. Massa. That ought to be juicy. Naval Academy grad who swings both ways. He is a DEM so I have no problem there. But to possibly be cheating on your wife? McGevey style? Gross.
Why not show the Alabama university shooter? Lots' of stuff there.
Posted 03/12/2010 at 02:48:34 PMYeah, Ajax, that Massa case is really weird, isn't it? Don't know what to make of it, other than that guy is very creepy. But that's being covered by everyone, same with the Alabama shooting. And the McGevey case is a couple years old now.
Posted 03/12/2010 at 03:29:37 PMPersonally, I think that if a person is guilty of ethics violations, political party affiliation should not matter. Wrong is wrong, and neither political party should condone it. Using the old tired excuse of, "Well, the democrats/republicans did the same thing," should not be the determing factor as to whether the behavior is acceptable or not. We either accept that this type of behavior is unacceptable for all members in our society, or we run the risk of condoning it for certain people, and giving them a free pass to repeat the behavior.
Posted 03/12/2010 at 05:11:16 PMPete: That is why I figured you hadn't covered the Alabama case. It is so well covered, elsewhere. No problems there.
I mention McGreevey, Massa and the other because they are all on one side of the spectrum. I would hope this is equal opportunity. But I understand your job. It is to attract as large an audience as possible so as to charge confiscatory rates for advertising.
But you have to admit that Massa is so juicy. We have the poor management of 3 institutions to examine USNA, Navy & Congres. Like the proverbial 3 monkeys.
Posted 03/12/2010 at 09:56:43 PMWe don't mind hitting on liberals too, Ajax, I just don't want to do one that everybody and his brother is covering.
Posted 03/13/2010 at 12:28:32 AMAll I can say is if "we" do not like what the politicians are doing, we have no one to blame accept ourselves. "We" voted them in. Also, why is it such a big deal when it comes out that politicians/celebrities did shit like this?? They are just freaking people too. This happens everyday all over America and while wrong, it isn't newsworthy until it's a celebrity or politician??? I just don't get it.
Posted 03/13/2010 at 02:20:38 AMThis comes out now from the State of Utah? Why its normal for that State since you can have multiple wives so this is normal for their neck of the woods. They have so many pedophiles in that State so he is doing the norm. This irritates me so much we really need to clean house through the Senate and the House and I believe it is happening now. Sad these men like children.
Posted 03/13/2010 at 01:11:09 PMShe is sleazy and so is he. There is enough to go around. And in this day and age he gets applause for admitting what was going to come out anyway. What a country. No courage here. He knew the story was going to break. So he tried to cut his losses.
Posted 03/13/2010 at 03:00:40 PMIt does seem like Maher was trying to milk as much out of it as she could, which isnt right. She should have went to the police when she was 15 years old, what he did was wrong and he should have had to pay. Though it isnt nearly as bad, it is wrong that NOW that he is a politicial running for office that she decides Utah needs to know about him. If she really needed justice, she would haved seeked it before he was someone in politics. So, we have a pervert, a scam artist, and a bribery scandal all in one story.
And whoever gave him thunderous applause for covering his own ass are a bunch of star crazed idiots. I dont mean to be politically biased, but it really doesnt surprise me that this story is about a republican.
Posted 03/13/2010 at 03:11:02 PMShe was 15, not 10. Some 15 year olds look like other girls at 25. Does your dicks have a built in age detector or what? If she's hot she's hot, no matter how old she is. Stop this fucking pedo hysteria.
Posted 03/13/2010 at 04:47:00 PMI think according to my calculations He was 30 at the time of the incident and she was 15, So its wrong if some 30 year old man tried to get in the tub with my 15 year old daughter butt ass naked I would have some problems with it. If he did'nt see anything wrong with what he did he would'nt have kept it on his thin concious enouph to go back and bribe the chick. Thing is she is taking away from the purpose she is trying to expose by using it as a means of blackmail, somehow takes away the impact of the actual offense. Anyway I don't see why he got a 'thunderous applause' for admiting it, he is still sleezy!
Posted 03/13/2010 at 06:31:16 PMHe should have just let her leak the info., then denied denied denied. It would have been her word against his and most people don't tend to believe low life con-artists until some dumbass confirms their story to be true by paying them off.
Posted 03/14/2010 at 07:57:46 PMGeez, it's not like he had sexual 'relations' with her. He handled this soooooo badly!
It could still be pedophilia!! We don't know what she looked like at age 15. If he was attracted to her because she looked like a child (no matter how old she is), he is a pedophile!! And, no matter what she looked like, IF he he knew she was underage, he is a freaking creep. Period. I was a 15 year-old girl once and I have SIX nieces. A 15 year-old is a CHILD, period!
Posted 03/14/2010 at 08:37:19 PMLook, his wife is pretty fat, so he is somewhat justified. No, he is totally justified in doing this.
She's a fecking gold digger. now she wants money,? you have to be kidding me!
leave the guy alone. It happened 25 years ago. His wife is fat, he needed something. give him a break.
Posted 03/14/2010 at 11:44:24 PMGarn knew exactly who she was and how old she was at the time. He started working for her father the year before, and knew of her then, when she was 14.
She didn't go to him in 2002 for money. He went to her and offered the money.
She says there was more to it than just a one-time mistake that he's claiming, but she hasn't said what.
Doesn't matter if it happened 25 years ago or even 50.
Doesn't matter if she really is a gold digger or not.
And definitely doesn't matter how fat and butt-ugly his wife is.
Garn announced his resignation on Saturday, 3/13/10.
Posted 03/15/2010 at 12:31:32 AMJosey:
Posted 03/16/2010 at 03:20:29 AMA 15-year old is a teenager, not a child. Don't sit there and pretend that everyone are children until their 18th birthday and then instantly become adults. Life is a little more complicated.
Under the LAW a person is a juvenile until the age of 18 years old that makes them a minor. They have curfews, can't smoke, can't get married, can't move out of parents home, has to go to school every day, pretty much has to do what ever their parents tell them to do. Under the age of 18 years of age they are called Children. Mr. Kevin Garn commited a crime, he had sex with a minor Child under the age of 18 years old. That is a crime and makes him a pedophilia.
Posted 03/16/2010 at 05:39:28 AMSandy> I'm pretty sure you just committed a crime yourself.. slander. Garn, though, has not committed any crime, he has not had sex with the girl as far as any of us know. And he has certainly not been sentenced for any crime.
You can choose to live in a black and white world where anyone interacting with people under the age of 18 are pedophiles if that makes you happy. I reserve the term pedophile for real offenders, otherwise the word loose its meaning.
Posted 03/19/2010 at 07:32:10 AMThe person who pissed me off in this article was that opportunist Maher. She got $150,000 25 yrs ago & accepted it happily..Now when she is a 40 yrs old, broke, worn and torn, she blackmails him & demands more?! There's no way in hell she had been grieving her whole adult life for an incident that occurred when she was a trampy teen. She used him as an eternal bank account and it disgusts me. If she was so distraught, she wouldn't have contacted the media ONLY AFTER he denied her more money. Money is her main concern, not painful memories. Filthy.
Posted 03/19/2010 at 07:54:28 AMBenny said,
Well guess what big mouth, you had better check the law. If you even know what slender is? (To spread lies about a person that is not true.) In Rep. Kevin Garn's case it is true and even if he did not have sex with the girl, it's still against the law for an adult male to get naked with a minor female. To post that Garn is a pedophile it is not breaking the LAW!! To make matters worse for Mr. Garn he keep calling the victim and she hung up on him.
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.
Posted 03/19/2010 at 09:35:41 PMPete, You have to have a story on the Health Care Bill that Passed Today? YEAH!!!!!!!!!
Posted 03/21/2010 at 01:16:58 AMI spoke to soon, not until Sunday. I'm sad
Posted 03/21/2010 at 03:19:52 AMGuzzo, that was a good one!
Guys tend to think that just because a young girl is physically mature, they are emotionally mature as well. They aren't.
Posted 03/22/2010 at 05:09:35 AMGarn: I am a Republican! I need some trouble to get in! Look at us in recent news. But we'll always tell you our religious views! We are the party of family values. We are God's Own Party too. But now something came back from the past. And it's bitten me in my ass!
Posted 04/04/2010 at 05:40:03 AM