Rep Gibbons (R) Accuser Says She Was "Threatened-Pressured & Bribed"

[kpete]

Gibbons' accuser says she was offered a bribe
Candidate’s adviser says allegations are fabricated, ‘absurd’
KATHLEEN HENNESSEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted: 10/26/2006

LAS VEGAS — A woman who says she was assaulted and propositioned by congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons said Wednesday she was threatened, pressured, and even offered money, to drop her allegations and change her story.

Chrissy Mazzeo, 32, a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino cocktail waitress, said at an hour-long news conference that the money offer came soon after the alleged Oct. 13 incident from a friend who said she had connections to Gibbons’ gubernatorial campaign.

The friend, Pennie Puhek, told Mazzeo to drop the charges against Gibbons, 61, and said she would be paid if she signed a statement changing her account, according to Mazzeo’s lawyer Richard Wright.

“There’s money in this, you will get money for signing this,” Wright quoted Puhek as saying on Oct. 16. Mazzeo added that a specific amount wasn’t mentioned but it was clear the payment would be coming from “the Gibbons party.”

more at:
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061026/NEWS/610260336/1002