NV R governor candidate sex assault: Let's go to the videotape

[ProgressiveEconomist]

Finally, this story is getting substantial national coverage, now that Chrissy Mazzeo has agreed to press charges, and two sets of lawyers have their hands on surveillance videos.

From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/31/AR2006103100869_pf.html :

"Scandal Rocks Nevada Governor's Race; By SCOTT SONNER, The Associated Press. Tuesday, October 31, 2006; 8:54 PM

RENO, Nev. -- Nevada's race for governor was barely a contest at all until it took a scandalous turn a few weeks ago, when a cocktail waitress accused Rep. Jim Gibbons of trying to sexually assault her in a parking garage after a night of drinking just off the Las Vegas Strip. The lurid allegations in the closing weeks of the campaign have put the race back in play and put the one-time Republican front-runner on the defensive. Policy issues have taken a back seat to dueling news conferences, a burgeoning criminal investigation and a mystery over what exactly is on the parking garage's surveillance video.

Gibbons, a conservative five-term congressman from Reno and the only member in the House to have served in both the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars, had held a nine-point lead in September over liberal Democrat Dina Titus, a state lawmaker and political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In a possible measure of how much damage the scandal has done, President Bush is headed to Nevada for the second time in a month, with a speech scheduled Thursday in Gibbons' solidly Republican congressional district. "Certainly the race must be tighter than they anticipated because it should have been a cakewalk ... for Gibbons, and now we have the president coming to Elko," said Fred Lokken, a Republican and political science professor at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno. ...

Mazzeo dropped the complaint the day after the alleged incident and told police it was because she did not want to start a media circus and "because of who he is." ... last week, Mazzeo, having retained a lawyer, called a news conference to claim she was threatened, pressured and offered money through an intermediary to change her story. Mazzeo said the intermediary was a friend who told her her life was in danger and "if you don't drop this, Chrissy, they will kill you, your baby and your family." ...

When Mazzeo initially dropped her complaint, police said there was not enough evidence a crime was committed, largely because there were no witnesses and video surveillance cameras in the parking garage were not working. More than a week later, though, the company that owns the garage said it turned the tapes over to the police. Police haven't disclosed what is on them, saying only that there were approximately 25 different camera angles and that it may take days to determine whether Mazzeo or Gibbons appear on the tapes. Gibbons won a judge's ruling Tuesday ordering the release of the videotapes that he said would prove he never touched the woman. The tapes were ordered released to attorneys for Gibbons and Mazzeo; the footage was not immediately made public. ... Meanwhile, the police department, under Sheriff Bill Young, who supports Gibbons, has reopened its investigation.

A poll published Friday showed Gibbons with 47 percent and Titus with 41 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The poll of 600 likely voters in the state's four most populous counties was conducted after the allegations were first reported but before Mazzeo held her news conference. Some critics say that even if the allegations are overblown, Gibbons showed poor judgment by walking a single woman who had been drinking to her car and by taking part in what witnesses said was a loud and "flirty" evening in the bar."

[Erika]

1. Another GOP scandal?

When do these people find time to do their jobs? Maybe they don't and the GOP never hold them accountable. That seems a trait of the GOP.