When a Utah lawmaker got a standing ovation for confessing to naked hot-tubbing with teen
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Fifteen years ago this week, the Utah House Majority Leader got a standing ovation from the state legislature after he confessed that he went hot tubbing naked with a 15-year-old.
- This is Old News, our weekly emphatic recitation of this sentence: No, we are not making this up.
What drove the news: After the late-night end of the 2010 legislative session, then-Rep. Kevin Garn (R-Davis County) told his fellow lawmakers he was resigning because he went hot tubbing in the nude with the teenager in 1985, when he was 28 (or 30?) and married — and then paid her $150,000 to keep quiet during his 2002 Congressional campaign.
- Garn had been her 4th grade Sunday school teacher in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and later was her boss at her high school job.
The Republican-controlled, predominantly-Latter-day-Saint legislature gave Garn a standing ovation.
- They then lined up to console him and his wife, praising his years of service.
Between the lines: While Garn said there was no touching, the woman said Garn lied, that they were in a long-term relationship, and that he had affairs with other people.
The intrigue: The woman had told the church-owned Deseret News of the relationship during Garn's congressional run, and Garn tearfully confessed — but editors killed the story, per a subsequent examination by a BYU journalism professor.
What happened: The woman, Cheryl Maher, was killed the next year by her boyfriend's 18-year-old son in a murder-suicide in New Hampshire.
Behind the scenes: I was a lowly night cops reporter at the time. But after 18 years in the media here, it's tough to recall a local news development that left Utah's political observers so … well, shook.
- In newsrooms and at Murphy's (our after-hours HQ back in the day) heads were shaking for a good long while. Some other women journalists told me they felt uncomfortable interviewing male lawmakers after that ovation.
The latest: Each year, reporters stay at the Capitol well after the final votes — and even after the legislature concludes their traditional musical performance (yes, this also is a real thing) — in part because of Garn's post-session disclosures that night.