Julian Carroll should not resign over sex allegation, friend says
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Julian Carroll made no public response Monday to the call from his fellow Democratic state senators that he resign from the Senate after a television news report that Carroll allegedly groped a man and propositioned him for sex in 2005.
Carroll has not returned numerous phone calls seeking comment on the Spectrum News Pure Politics report based on an on-camera interview with the accuser – photographer Jason Geis – and Geis’ recording of the incident on a hidden tape recorder. In the report, Carroll denied the allegations.
A spokeswoman for the Senate Democratic Caucus said Monday that Carroll had not yet answered the caucus’ call on Sunday that he resign his seat in the state Senate.
A prominent Frankfort defense attorney and longtime friend of Carroll, William Johnson, said he would advise Carroll to remain in the Senate.
“Julian is a friend as well as a past client, so I have talked to him about the news stories,” Johnson said.
Asked if he represents Carroll in this controversy, Johnson said, “I don’t think he needs representation, quite candidly. This is some fellow out there who makes some statement about something that happened, what? Twelve years ago? Unfortunately, it appears to me now that (the Senate Democratic caucus) has over-reacted and not paid proper respect to someone who has been a state representative, speaker of the House, lieutenant governor, governor, and now senator.”
But the Senate Democratic Caucus was so affected by the information in the Spectrum report that within 24 hours of the report broadcast, the caucus issued a two-sentence statement calling on Carroll to resign and saying the caucus voted to remove him from his leadership role as minority whip.
The Senate Democratic Leader Ray Jones, of Pikeville, declined Monday to elaborate on that statement.
Meanwhile, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said he was continuing to gather information and state police reports on the 2005 incident and was not prepared yet to say what Carroll should do or how the majority Republicans should respond.
“I don’t have enough facts or information to comment. …This story caught me off guard,” Stivers said. “I’m uncertain why the Democratic caucus decided to act the way they acted.”
Stivers said he’s asked his staff to research his options. “I’m not jumping to any conclusions, but I’ve asked my people to look into what is available to me because this has never come in front of the Senate in the 20 years I’ve been there,” Stivers said. “I just know I need to be prepared depending on what we find out.”
The most recent time any comparable situation occurred was in 2013 when three legislative staff members accused then Rep. John Arnold, D-Sturgis, of sexual harassment.
Then-House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, filed a petition for the House to investigate Arnold’s alleged conduct and decide whether to vote to censure or expel Arnold.
But the vote to expel Arnold was avoided within two weeks because Arnold resigned.
Carroll, 86, has served in the Kentucky Senate since 2005 representing Franklin and several other counties. he served as governor from 1974-79. He is currently in the middle of a Senate term that ends at the end of 2019. If he resigns, his seat would be filled by special election.
The Spectrum report said Geis is a photographer who was working in Frankfort in 2005 when he sought Carroll’s help in getting into an art school. Geis said he secretly recorded the alleged unwanted sexual advances that Carroll made that occurred in Geis’ residence near Danville.
Spectrum played that recording as the foundation of its story, and it reported that State Police records show that Carroll admitted to investigators it is his voice on the tape, but that his sexual advances to Geis were not genuine but to see how Geis answered them so he would know how to counsel Geis.
Geis also complained in the report that investigators decided not to pursue charges. And Tres Watson, spokesman for the Republican Party of Kentucky, said Sunday that the most concerning part of the report were suggestions that Carroll, and perhaps others, “may have used their influence to alter the course of the investigation.”
By Tom Loftus
The Courier-Journal
