Kevin Garns Mistakes

This is something I don’t usually weigh in on. However, I’m so mad about this that I need to write. I read Peg McEntee’s column in the Salt Lake Tribune today. She wrote a disturbing series about child porn recently and it was so well written and researched. However, this week I disagree with her.

Some background. One of my closest friends in high school was abused by her dad (someone I trusted and knew pretty well). He went to prison for it. She’s not the only close friend I’ve had who’s dad went to jail or should’ve for this reason. None of them has let it ruin their lives but they have had to fight hard to heal and raise healthy families themselves. I do not believe we should continue to punish Kevin Garn unless there is more than he’s telling us now.

As far as it’s been reported Kevin Garn, who was the Majority (Republican) leader in the House, spent some time in a hot tub naked with an underage girl. He didn’t even kiss her and nothing else went on when this happened, 25 years ago. Cheryl Maher was 15. He was 28 and married. She decided she needed to tell everyone about this recently and he resigned over it today. The crazy thing is he paid her off – $150k – to keep quiet. That was the mistake, he should’ve owned up then and not paid anything. The first thing he did was wrong but forgivable. Paying her was a much bigger mistake. But as far as I can see he didn’t do anything else. He never lied about it, he just didn’t want it to go public. While it looked bad he didn’t cheat on his wife, didn’t abuse anyone, and it doesn’t look like he’s had any sort of history of abuse before or after this incident.

He told his wife and family, went to his church leaders and immediately discussed what to do to help make it right. Apparently she wanted payment, which he agreed to. He was running for Congress and thought the revelation would be really bad for his campaign. Too bad he didn’t let it come out then. Life would be better now.

So while it may be appropriate to resign (I’m not even sure I agree with that), there are people who’ve done so much worse. While this isn’t good, it’s certainly not nearly what I’ve seen from other politicians. Many people have done something in their life they are ashamed of and that someone could come forward with. I’m not sure what she wants next but I believe he should be forgiven and that he should not have to take all the blame for the messes in this woman’s life from then on.

She had it out for him, even after getting both justice and compensation. If she wanted to go public with the information now, fine, but I think this shows her intent (revenge). Because even after all of this time the article states, “…two years ago, she told Garn’s son in an e-mail that “nothing will stop me” from getting “justice and compensation.” Notice it didn’t say that she wanted healing or peace. She wanted money (which she already got). As far as I know he isn’t going to be arrested or face charges. However, if there is more than this one incident and there are more serious allegations then I would feel differently (and the Deseret News article hints that there’s more to come).

Kevin Garn was stupid several times. Yet it doesn’t look like there is further justice needed. I say for both sides it’s time to let this go and yes Peg, from the looks of it now, this was a mistake.

The story has made national news

• Kevin Garn Confession: Utah House GOP Leader Paid Woman For Silence About Nude Hot Tubbing When She Was A Minor (huffingtonpost.com)
• Utah GOP leader resigns after hot tub confession (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Republican: I paid $150,000 in hush money (msnbc.msn.com)