Woman denies sexual relationship with former House speaker
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FRANKFORT, Ky. — The woman who received a secret sexual harassment settlement from Kentucky’s former Republican House speaker says the two of them did not have a sexual relationship, despite a whistleblower lawsuit filed Monday by the woman’s supervisor.
Jeff Hoover’s tenure as Kentucky’s first Republican House speaker in nearly 100 years ended abruptly last month when he acknowledged he paid to settle a sexual harassment claim from a woman in his office outside of court. Hoover denied harassment, but said he sent the woman inappropriate but consensual text messages. He said the two of them never had sex.
But Monday, the spokeswoman for the House Republican Caucus filed a lawsuit saying Hoover had “physical, sexual encounters” with the woman “both during work hours, and outside of work hours.” She said Hoover and three other Republican lawmakers paid the woman a settlement “with private funds pooled from prominent campaign donors” in an attempt to keep it private.
The allegations in Daisy Olivo’s lawsuit are based on conversations she said she had with the woman, identified as “Jane Doe,” which she said included detailed timelines of their sexual encounters plus three years’ worth of text messages. But Monday night, the woman said through her attorney that Olivo’s allegations are false.
