Raising Cain

Michael Shear and Trip Gabriel have an article in The New York Times about the latest in the Herman Cain scandal:

A Chicago woman alleged that Herman Cain grabbed her in a sexually aggressive way when she sought his help after losing her job at the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. Sharon Bialek (photo, at left), accompanied by her lawyer, Gloria Allred (photo, at right), became the first woman to publicly accuse the presidential candidate of sexual harassment, saying that she wants to “give a voice” to other women who might have been harassed by Cain during his tenure at the association. “I want you to come clean,” Bialek, who said she was a Republican, told a packed news conference in New York City’s Friars Club . “Just admit what you did. Admit you were inappropriate to people, and then move forward.”
In a statement issued moments after the news conference started, Cain emphatically denied the accusation. “Activist celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred is bringing forth more false accusations against the character of Republican front-runner Herman Cain,” the statement said. “All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false. Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone. Fortunately the American people will not allow Mr. Cain’s bold 9-9-9 Plan, clear foreign policy vision, and plans for energy independence to be overshadowed by these bogus attacks.”
Cain has been dealing with multiple allegations of sexual harassment since Politico first wrote of two legal settlements during his tenure at the restaurant association. Cain has acknowledged the settlements, but has said that the charges that led to them are “baseless” and false.
In an interview after Bialek’s news conference, Joel P. Bennett, a lawyer for another one of Cain’s anonymous accusers, said that Bialek’s claims were “very similar” in nature to the incident that occurred between his client and Cain. His client has not said whether Cain touched her physically. In a statement on her behalf, Bennett alleged that Cain had engaged in a “series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances” toward his client. “It corroborates the claim,” Bennett said of Bialek’s allegation. Asked whether that meant that Cain had touched his client inappropriately, Bennett said: “I can’t get more specific”. He added: “I can say it is corroborating.”
Bennett also said that a woman named Sharon from Chicago left a message on his answering machine over the weekend saying that she, too, had been the subject of harassment at the hands of Cain. Bennett said he called her back to suggest that he could arrange for her to come forward confidentially, but that she said that she would think about it. After watching the news conference, Bennett said: “I guess she got over her shyness.”
Bialek is the first woman to come forward publicly with such allegations. In her statement to the press, Bialek said that she had been fired at the association after about a year working for the group’s educational foundation in its Chicago office. She said she sought Cain’s help to find other employment during a trip to Washington about a month after he left the group. During that trip, she said Cain had secretly upgraded her hotel room before drinks and dinner that the two had to discuss possible future employment. She said that after dinner, he put his hand on her leg and ran it under her skirt and pulled her head toward his crotch. “I was surprised and shocked and I said, what are you doing? You know I have a boyfriend,” Bialek recalled saying. “This is not what I came here for.”
“You want a job, right?” she said Cain responded. “I asked him to stop, and he did.”
Allred said that Bialek approached her last week to come forward and tell her story. Allred showed what she said were two affidavits from friends of Bialek’s, testifying that she had told them of the incident at the time. Allred did not release the affidavits to the press.
“Cain, while running for president, is actively lying to Americans,” Allred alleged. “Enough is enough. We have to fight back. That is what our client is doing here today.”
The accusations by Bialek differ somewhat from those made anonymously by other women. All of the other cases were made by women who said the harassment happened while they were working at the restaurant association during Cain’s tenure as its president.
But her allegations add another voice to those describing a pattern of what they say was inappropriate behavior by Cain during that period. Other women have said he made unwanted advances during dinners or events that involved alcohol.
Bialek said she first met Cain during her time at the association’s Chicago office, when he sat next to her at a dinner during one of the group’s conventions. He later invited her and her boyfriend to an after-party in his hotel suite, she said.
But the alleged harassment did not occur until after she was fired, she said. Sue Hensley, a spokeswoman with the restaurant association confirmed that “Sharon Bialek was employed by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation from 12/30/96 to 6/20/97.”
Bialek said that her boyfriend at the time suggested that she reach out to Cain for help getting a job back at the association, or employment elsewhere. She said she arranged to meet Cain at the bar in her hotel at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. When she arrived, she was surprised by the size of her hotel room, which had been upgraded to a suite. “He asked how I liked my room,” Bialek said. She said that he “smirked” and said: “I upgraded you.”
The two later went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. As they drove back after dinner, she said, he “suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt, and reached for my genitals.” She said he also “grabbed my head” and pulled it toward his crotch.
Allred read from what she said was an affidavit written by Bialek’s boyfriend at the time: “When Bialek returned from the trip from Washington, she told me that her room had been upgraded by Cain,” the boyfriend said, according to Allred. “She also told me that he had engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct toward her while they were sitting in a car. She didn’t volunteer the details and I did not ask. Bialek and I stopped dating some fifteen years ago.”

Rico says that when the woman suing you hires Gloria Allred , you should know you're screwed...